Ruskell uses major European conference to challenge Scot Gov refusal to set up environmental court
Mark Ruskell MSP, Environment spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, today (6 Nov) used a session at a major European conference to challenge the Scottish Government over its recent decision not to set up a specialist environmental court.
Speaking at the European Environmental Bureau conference in Edinburgh, Mark Ruskell MSP said:
"In just a few years' time we will lose the greatest environmental protection the European Union ever gave us. The European Court of Justice has been a hard backstop against destruction of our environment holding governments to account on issues from air pollution to the protection of species facing extinction.
"The Scottish Government has rejected an environmental court to replace European protections, but no government should be above the independent legal scrutiny of a body whose purpose is to protect our rights to a clean and healthy environment."
The European Environmental Bureau, set up in 1974, is Europe’s largest network of environmental citizens’ organisations, bringing together around 140 civil society organisations with a combined membership of 15 million people from more than 30 European countries.