EU membership is good for UK environment, committee of MPs says

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's environmental policies on air and water pollution and biodiversity benefit from the country's membership of the European Union, a committee of British lawmakers said in a report on Tuesday. Based on the findings of an inquiry into the impact of Britain leaving the EU ahead of a June referendum on the subject, the Environmental Audit Committee said EU membership had given Britain a platform to pursue its environmental aims internationally and to influence long-term policy. It has also ensured environmental action in Britain has been done faster and more thoroughly than if it had not been an EU member, the report said. Even if Britain left the EU, it would still have to follow some EU environmental laws but would be less able to influence how they were developed, it added. Ministers told the committee a vote to leave would result in a "long and tortuous negotiation" with the EU over environmental policy, and investors said Britain quitting the EU - known as Brexit - could remove long-term certainty. "The UK has cleaned up its act since we were dubbed the 'dirty man of Europe' in the seventies," said Mary Creagh, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee. "EU environmental laws have played a key part and mean we bathe on cleaner beaches, drive more fuel-efficient cars and can hold Government to account on air pollution," she added. (Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Mark Potter)