The Polluter-Pays Principle in OECD recommendations and its application in International and EC/EU law
Abstract
This article is intended to provide a brief overview of the current defi nitions for the Polluter-Pays Principle (hereinafter "PPP" or the "Principle") within the member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development(OECD) and its application in international and EC/EU law. Th e paper describes how formulations of this principle have evolved from a "no subsidy" approach towards an approach advocating full internalisation of environmental costs.
In the OECD countries or, as appropriate, at the European level, the Polluter-Pays Principle represents a long recognized, practically applied economic and legal principle leading to the internalisation of cost for environmental protection; the cost is transferred from Governments to actual polluters who contaminate the environment by their production or other activities.