There is no need for more environmental legislation in the case of shale gas exploration, at least until it reaches commercial scale. This is the conclusion of a recent study published by the European Commission on January 27.

 

The report carried out for the European Commission by Belgian law firm Philippe & Partners concentrates on four member-states, namely Sweden France, Poland and Germany. These countries were selected because they are more or less ahead of the others in terms of shale gas exploration. In end-2011 Polish PM Donald Tusk announced that the country would start commercial shale extraction in 2014 in order to decrease its dependency on gas imports from Russia.

 

Following recent public concern about the environmental impact of shale gas exploration, the report concludes that activities relating to exploration are already subject to EU and national laws and regulations.

Water protection issues, for instance, which have been raised as an issue by shale gas detractors, are already covered by EU legislation under the Water Framework Directive, the Groundwater Directive and the Mining Waste Directive. Meanwhile, the use of chemicals is covered by the REACH regulation, the study says.

“It is a new technology and we do not have a specific legislation on shale gas, because it is so new," said Marlene Holzner, European Commission spokesperson on energy.

 

The law firm said shale gas activities were too small at the moment to justify specific legislation. “Neither on the European level nor on the national level have we noticed significant gaps in the current legislative framework, when it comes to regulating the current level of shale gas activities,” the study reads.

 

The assessment, however, refers only to the current scale of operations in Europe. Shale gas exploitation on a commercial scale would involve bigger maneuvers and most definitely would require further regulation.

 

Nevertheless, this does not concern Bulgaria, even though the EU regulations mentioned in the report have already been transferred to the Bulgarian legislation. As thousands of citizens protested against shale gas ventures over fears of water poisoning and health hazards, the government voted the ban of exploration and commercial extraction for an indefinite period.