eu4journalists

Environment

2. Environment action programmes

Issues

• Is it too late to recycle?
• Earthquakes continue to wreak death and destruction
• Polluting emissions impact on ozone levels
• Europe's coastal areas blighted by algae blooms
• Extreme weather conditions cause local disasters

The Union’s environment action programmes, launched in 1972, have helped integrate ecological and environmental aspects into all areas of Community policy. The sixth programme – ‘Environment 2010: Our Future, Our Choice’ running from 2002 to 2012 - focuses on four priority areas:

• Tackling climate change and global warming
• Protecting natural habitat and wildlife
• Addressing environmental and health issues
• Preserving natural resources and managing waste.

The programme builds on a comprehensive system of controls already in place in the EU and offers equal protection to all member states while maintaining the flexibility to accommodate local and regional requirements – for example, water policy is based on the specific needs of each river basin. Issues involving several policy areas are addressed through seven thematic strategies dealing with air pollution, waste prevention and recycling, the marine environment, soil, pesticides, sustainable use of resources and the urban environment.

The 6th action programme also emphasizes the importance of enforcing existing environmental laws. Environmental impact should be considered in all EU policies, for example when making decisions concerning agriculture, energy and transport: environmental problems have to be tackled at their source and this frequently touches a number of policy areas. The whole society – businesses, citizens, NGO’s, social partners – should be encouraged to get closely involved in finding solutions to environmental problems.

The programme stresses that environmental concerns and European objectives for growth, competitiveness and employment are linked: economic and social aspects of environmental policy must always be considered.

The European Environmental Bureau EEB has called for more quantitative and better-defined qualitative targets to the action programme. Organisations such as BUSINESSEUROPE, which represents European industries, have demanded that future environmental policy initiatives should include systematic economic impact assessment and cost-benefit analysis.