Key Notes

Sixth Environment Action Programme - ‘Environment 2010: our future, our choice’

A strategic programme
Based on the lessons learned in the implementation of the previous programme, launched in 1992, and from its assessment, this new Environment Action Programme constitutes the framework for Community environment policies for the ten-year period from 2001 to 2010.

This is a strategic programme in the sense that it is the pillar on which the environment policy of the European Union will rest throughout the decade. The framework, general in scope, has the primary aim of laying the foundations for effective responses, both to the challenges facing the entire planet and to the specific problems encountered by the Community and by individual countries and localities.


I. What are the priorities?

Future European environment policies will have to concentrate on six priorities. During the preparation phase, the EPP-ED Group laid special emphasis on the need to focus efforts on specific areas of action and realistic objectives.
1. Climate change
The European Union has played a pioneering role in the efforts to combat the greenhouse effect. The reduction of greenhouse gases is a global challenge, but the Union has acted as a driving force by formulating a genuine Community strategy for the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol.
2. Nature and biodiversity
The conservation of Europe’s natural heritage is a key environmental challenge throughout the territory of Europe as well as being a significant aim in the realms of economics, tourism and agriculture.
3. Environment and health and quality of life
The environment and public health are inextricably linked. A damaged environment has serious repercussions on people’s health in Europe, particularly in urban areas: noise, stress and air and water pollution are at the root of many medical conditions and allergies, and effective measures must be taken to combat them.
4. Natural resources and waste
Considerable efforts have already been made in the domains of energy economy and waste management. Many ways of reducing wastage and diminishing the harmful effects of waste nevertheless remain unexplored. Improvements must be made in the recycling and reutilisation of waste products, and greater attention must be paid to the life cycles of manufacturing and packaging materials. The development of renewable energy sources must become a reality.
5. The European Union and the global context
In the field of environment policy, the European Union has always played a leading role on the world stage. It has been particularly prominent in the struggle to deal with climate change but also in the wider perspective of the efforts to promote sustainable development on a global scale, particularly in the WTO framework.
6. Decision-making based on public involvement and sound scientific knowledge
The aim in this priority area is to improve the quality of decisions, thereby facilitating their implementation and enforcement. To this end, the role of civil society, the voluntary sector and economic players (consumers and producers) in the decision-making process must be further improved in terms of both consultation and communication. It is also imperative to have better scientific knowledge and to disseminate it as widely as possible.


II. How can these priority aims be achieved?

One of the main innovations of the Sixth Action Programme, an innovation firmly supported by the EPP-ED Group, was the adoption of strategies for the achievement of five specific objectives:

• to improve the implementation and enforcement of Community legislation,
• to make environmental-protection requirements an integral part of other Union policies,
• to collaborate with consumers and producers to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns,
• to help ensure that consumers are better informed, and
• to encourage more effective and sustainable management and use of land and sea.

In order to be in tune with the real situation on the ground, these strategies, which were successively proposed by the European Commission during an initial three-year period, differ intentionally in the forms they take. With a view to ensuring that the Commission did not have a free hand, Parliament adopted an amendment tabled by the EPP-ED Group which was designed to subject the formulation and development of strategies relating to specific objectives to the codecision procedure, thereby guaranteeing the full involvement of the European Parliament. In seven areas, the Union has compiled an ‘environmental inventory’ as a basis for the definition of objectives and the formulation of concrete proposals in response to the identified problems. On this basis, a specific strategic framework is now being finalised for each area; these frameworks set a timetable and define the precise measures to be taken. The seven areas are:

• soil protection,
• protection and conservation of the marine environment,
• sustainable use of pesticides,
• atmospheric pollution,
• the urban environment,
• the use and sustainable management of natural resources, and
• recycling of waste.

III. What role has the EPP-ED Group played?

At the time when the Sixth Action Programme was adopted, the EPP-ED Group expressed its profound disagreement with the positions of the Socialist Group and insisted on defining a credible environment policy, in other words a policy with realistic objectives and a decentralised approach in which regional and local decision-makers would have a wide-ranging role in the definition of concrete means of implementation. Accordingly, the EPP-ED Group introduced important ideas that did not feature in the Action Programme as originally proposed by the European Commission:

• The urban environment: 80% of the population of the Union live in urban environments, where they are subject to substantial pollutant emissions, bad smells, traffic congestion, noise, etc.
• Support for local and regional authorities in the domains of management, information and application of the law.
• Assistance to SMEs, which are often faced with real difficulties because of the constraints imposed by the implementation of environment policies.
• Elimination of subsidies with an adverse environmental impact: on the basis of criteria for the definition of such subsidies, reforms should be made with a view to gradually eliminating subsidies that have an adverse impact on the environment.
• Encouragement of voluntary agreements designed to achieve specific environmental objectives.

The EPP-ED Group is determined to monitor closely and lend practical support to the implementation of the Sixth Environment Action Programme.