FRANCE'S NEW GOVERNMENT GIVES BOOST TO ENVIRONMENT POLICY

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005284785
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: June 24, 2015
• Document Release Date: May 27, 2011
• Case Number: F-2008-00831
• Publication Date: August 25, 1997

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Intelligence'Repoi'
DCI Environmental Center
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
25 August 1997
France's New Government Gives Boost to Environment Policy
Despite giving priority to such pressing matters as record unemployment, the fiscal
deficit, and public concerns for security following the bomb attacks in Paris, Premier
Jospin has signaled his interest in moving ahead on environmental issues by
approving various initiatives of Environment Minister and Green Party member
Voynet. Since the June elections, Voynet has taken key domestic actions, including:
? Closing the Super-Phenix fast breeder reactor program after it had been
widely criticized for poor management and cost overruns
? Stopping construction of the Rhine-Rhone canal, amid criticism that it
would remove whole villages in its path, according to press reports.
? Banning fishing and boating near La Hague nuclear waste reprocessing
plant after Greenpeace found radioactive waste in the waters around the
facility. The plant is still operational pending government tests. Voynet
plans to establish an independent authority for monitoring the operation
of all such plants, according to press reports.
? Using the pollution alerts in major French cities this summer to promote
an "eco-tax" on private auto emissions with revenues to contribute to
expansion of public transport. She considers the private auto a key factor
in the smog affecting Paris and proposes that the balance of transport
systems should shift toward mass transit, according to press reports. She
has asked all urban centers with populations over 100,000 to have in place
by December 1998 detailed plans--for which the Environment Ministry
wilIprovideguidelines--to transport more people on trains and bicycles.
APPROVED FOR RELEASEL
DATE: 17-May-2011
 In addition, Voynet has taken some steps in Brussels to indicate that the Jospin
Government has decided on a more positive approach to EU environmental actions
than its predecessors. She has, for example:
? Endorsed the EU's program for stricter fuel specifications for gasoline and
diesel to lower emissions, according to press reports. Legislation is in the
final stages in the European Parliament and expected to be ready for
implementation by 1 January 1998. The previous French government did
not fully support the program.
? Advocated more stringent humane trapping standards for the EU than
those to which DG I (External Economic Relations) had agreed with
Canada and Russia and, by defeating DG I's proposal, forced the
European Commission to start over
The previous government was in DG Is camp.
private auto transport to reduce emissions.
Voynet probably will advocate that France join Austria, Denmark, Germany,
Netherlands, and the UK in pushing for a 10-percent cut by 2010 in the 1990 level of
carbon emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels. The previous French
government was reluctant to take that step because the principal sector of the
economy in which France would have to find significant emissions reductions is the
politically sensitive one of transport. Voynet, however, appears willing to take on
However, formidable political, bureaucratic, and financial obstacles remain for
Voynet's policies to make headway. For example:
? French public opinion is not as closely attuned to green issues as is
German or Dutch opinion because government programs have to date
been conceptually sound but lacking specific targets, standards, and
procedural mechanisms that would bring these issues closer to home,
? The government's environmental functions are scattered across a number
of agencies. Voynet has the environment portfolio, but the Agriculture;
Infrastructure, Transport, and Housing; and Justice Ministries also are
players. France lacks an interministerial council to coordinate policy,
 ? The Environment Ministry is weak compared to these other ministries.
The Infrastructure, Transport, and Housing Ministry, for example, is
20 times the size of the Environment Ministry, according to press reports,
and receives a substantially larger amount of government funding.