Our Future, Our Choice' focuses on four major areas for action climate change, health and the environment, nature and bio-diversity and natural resource management. The new programme stresses the importance of involving citizens and business in innovative ways. But we still face major problems and in some cases the environment is actually getting worse.
Citizens are concerned about their environment.
Therefore we have to act urgently and this is what we are proposing in the new programme. The new blueprint for the EU's environmental policy follows the 5th Environmental Action Programme in 1992 and its Review in 1998. This Sixth Environment Action Programme sets out overall objectives to be achieved and identifies a list of priority actions. It has to be adopted by the Council and the European Parliament by co-decision procedure. A strategic approach The new programme builds on a consultation launched by the Commission in November 1999 with its Global Assessment of the 5th Action Programme, which in turn was based on a major report by the European Environment Agency on the state of the environment.