ABSTRACT

The EMAS regulation requires member states to set up a system for the accreditation and supervision of verifiers and the designation of competent bodies to register approved sites. Since the accreditation of environmental verifiers and the supervision of their activities affect the basic right, in accordance with Article 12 of the German Constitution, to choose and practise a profession and since the "registration of sites constitutes regulation of the rights of established enterprises under Article 14 of the Constitution" (Sellner and Schnutenhaus, 1993, 932), the introduction of EMAS required the adoption of a new law in Parliament. Under the EMAS regulation, the competent bodies should have been up and running by April 1995. However, the German Environmental Audit Act eventually came into force in December 1995 after months of delay.