Environment : a healthy and sustainable environment for present and future generations.
Date: 2014-11-03
Institutions: Directorate-General for Communication
Subjects: EU action, dissemination of EU information, environmental policy, environmental protection, public awareness campaign

T H E   E U R O P E A N  
U N I O N  
E X P L A I N E D

A healthy and 
sustainable 
environment 
for present 
and future 
generations

Environment 

P ro t ec ti ng  t he  e nvir on m en t  and 
m ain tain in g  o u r  c om p e tit iven es s   
go e s  han d- in-h an d

CONTENTS 

Why do we need  
an environmental policy? .  .  .  .  .  .  . 3

How the EU develops  
environmental policy  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 5

What the EU does  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 8

The road ahead  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 14 

Further reading  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 16

The EU explained: Environment

European Commission
Directorate-General for Communication
Citizens information
1049 Brussels
BELGIUM

Manuscript updated in November 2014

Cover and page 2 picture: © Jupiter Images

16 pp. — 21 × 29.7 cm
ISBN 978-92-79-42633-9
doi:10.2775/90841

Luxembourg: Publications Office  
of the European Union, 2014

© European Union, 2014
Reproduction is authorised. For any use or reproduction 
of individual photos, permission must be sought directly 
from the copyright holders.

THE EUROPEAN UNION 
EXPLAINED

This publication is a part of a series that explains  
what the EU does in different policy areas,  
why the EU is involved and what the results are. 

You can find the publications online:
http://europa.eu/pol/index_en.htm

http://europa.eu/!bY34KD

How the EU works
Europe in 12 lessons 
Europe 2020: Europe’s growth strategy
The founding fathers of the EU

Agriculture
Banking and finance 
Borders and security 
Budget
Climate action
Competition
Consumers
Culture and audiovisual
Customs
Digital agenda 
Economic and monetary union and the euro
Education, training, youth and sport 
Employment and social affairs
Energy
Enlargement
Enterprise

Environment
Fight against fraud
Food safety
Foreign affairs and security policy
Humanitarian aid and civil protection 
Internal market
International cooperation and development
Justice,  fundamental rights and equality
Maritime affairs and fisheries 
Migration and asylum
Public health
Regional policy
Research and innovation
Taxation
Trade
Transport

3

Why do we need an environmental policy?

By its nature, the environment transcends political, legal 
and man-made boundaries. As a result, cross-border 
cooperation within the European Union and between the 
EU and the rest of the world is essential if we are to 
tackle challenges which impact on us all. These range 
from droughts and floods to pollution and threats to 
Europe’s rich biodiversity.

The underlying aim is to improve the quality of the 
environment, protect human health, achieve prudent 
and rational use of natural resources, and promote 
international measures to address global or regional 
environmental problems. A coordinated environmental 
strategy across the Union ensures synergies and 
coherence between EU policies and, given the relevance 
of environmental legislation for many business sectors, 
will ensure a level playing field for their activities and 
prevent obstacles undermining the single market.

Many take the environment for granted, but pressure on 
the Earth’s finite resources is growing at an 
unprecedented rate. Efforts must be made to raise 
general awareness, use resources more efficiently and 
eradicate damaging and wasteful behaviour. Otherwise, 
future generations will be deprived of their legitimate 
inheritance. This requires collective action involving the 
EU, national, regional and local governments, 
businesses, NGOs and ordinary individuals.

Pressure of rising demand
Our behaviour makes huge demands on the planet. 
During the 20th century, the world increased its use 
of fossil fuels by a factor of 12 and extracted 34 
times more material resources. Demand for food, 
animal feed and fibre may increase by 70 % by 2050. 
If we carry on using resources at the current rate, we 
will need more than two planets to sustain us.

The impact we have on the environment today is making a big 
difference to the world of future generations.

Evolving strategy

The major environmental challenges facing Europe have 
evolved since the early days of European environmental 
policymaking. In the 1970s and 1980s the focus was on 
traditional environmental themes such as protecting 
species and improving the quality of the air we breathe 
or the water we drink by reducing emissions of 
pollutants. Now, emphasis is on a more systematic 
approach that takes account of links between various 
themes and their global dimension. This means moving 
from remediation to prevention of environmental 
degradation.

It involves ensuring that other areas such as agriculture, 
energy, transport, fisheries, regional development, 
research, innovation and external aid take fully into 
account the environmental consequences of their policy 
and funding decisions. This mainstreaming will ensure a 
more coherent approach towards environmental 
challenges and maximise synergies.

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ENVIRONMENT 
 
Working across borders

The environment does not stop at the Union’s borders. 
Air, water, seas and wildlife know no boundaries. The 
more the EU can encourage neighbouring countries — 
and ideally the whole world — to adopt its high 
standards, the better the quality of our own 
environment will be.

It works closely with its neighbours to encourage them 
to do the same and plays an active role in international 
negotiations on sustainable development, biodiversity 
and climate change. The EU’s longer-term objective of 
environmental sustainability is one of the United 
Nations’ millennium development goals.

Public support

There is strong public support for EU measures to 
improve the environment. A pan-European opinion 
survey in mid-2014 revealed that 95 % of respondents 
consider that protecting the environment is important to 
them personally. Almost three quarters agree that 
protecting the environment can boost economic growth, 
and over three quarters agree that EU legislation is 
necessary to protect the environment in their country. 
The most widely voiced environmental concerns were 
pollution of air and water, waste generation and the 
depletion of natural resources.

4

After more than four decades of policymaking at EU 
level, much of our environment is protected by a body 
of European legislation. But the implementation of 
these policies remains problematic. This is a key 
challenge that needs to be tackled for the full benefits 
of these laws to be enjoyed by all. The new EU 
environment action programme (see the ‘The road 
ahead’ chapter) will address this.

Environment and economy in harmony

In short, environmental and economic considerations 
are complementary, like two sides of the same coin. 
Greening the economy reduces environmental costs 
through more efficient use of resources, while new 
environmentally friendly technologies and techniques 
create employment, give a boost to the economy and 
strengthen the competitiveness of European industry.

The European Commission is showing the way with its 
Europe 2020 strategy, the EU’s growth strategy for the 
coming decade. This firmly embeds efficient use of our 
finite natural resources as one of seven flagship 
initiatives. Environmental policy can help meet the 
strategy’s overall objectives of moving to smart, 
sustainable and inclusive growth that will transform 
Europe into a knowledge-based, resource-efficient 
economy.

For instance, strengthening the resilience of our 
ecosystems, which provide food, fresh water, raw 
materials and many other benefits, contributes to 
productivity and quality of life, while reducing public 
health bills.

Today, environmental and economic considerations  
are two sides of the same coin.

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THE EUROPEAN UNION EXPLAINED 
 
 
5

How the EU develops environmental policy

Implementation

Using the market

The market is one cost-effective way to protect and 
improve the environment and ease pressure on scarce 
resources. Taxes and subsidies can be used to act as 
incentives or deterrents to persuade companies and 
consumers to opt for greener manufacturing methods 
and products. Many already exist, such as fees for 
cutting trees or disposing of waste. The European 
Commission would like to see the gradual removal of 
subsidies for industry, transport, farming and energy 
that encourage use of polluting or energy-intensive 
products and processes.

Policies must be based on sound evidence that provides 
an understanding of the causes and impact of 
environmental change so that appropriate responses 
and strategies can be devised. Much of this data comes 
from national sources complemented by Pan-European 
datasets and is analysed by the European Environment 
Agency, which provides input into the EU’s 
environmental policy.

The EU has put in place different programmes to 
encourage the development of robust and accurate 
data and ensure it is widely shared. The Copernicus 
programme, for instance, provides Earth Observation 
satellite data and information combining space data 
with data from land, sea and air monitoring stations. 
The aim is to produce a wide range of datasets to help 
environmental policymaking and support its 
implementation.

Since the 1970s, the EU has agreed over 200 pieces of 
legislation to protect the environment. But legislation 
alone counts for little if it is not properly applied and 
enforced. So, the challenge now is to implement 
effectively what has been agreed. This is complex since 
many different tasks are done by diverse groups 
ranging from national inspectors and courts to NGOs 
and citizens exercising their participatory rights.
Failure to implement legislation has many adverse 
consequences. It can undermine fundamental 
environmental objectives, harm human health and 
present industry with regulatory uncertainty as agreed 
standards are applied unevenly across the Union. 
Meanwhile, proper implementation can bring financial 
benefits. If EU waste legislation is fully applied it would 
generate 400 000 jobs and reduce annual net costs by 
EUR 72 billion.

The European Commission can, through the European 
Court of Justice, take legal action against a Member 
State which fails to implement legislation correctly. 
These infringement cases — more of them concern the 
environment than any other area — are not only 
embarrassing for governments, but can ultimately lead 
to fines for repeated failure to implement EU rules.

But legal action is a last resort. The European 
Commission attaches greater importance to helping 
Member States with effective implementation. 
Capacity-building and financial support are available, 
alongside better knowledge of the state of the 
environment as well as information on the way Member 
States deliver on their EU commitments in practice. It 
has recommended that each Member State should 
establish an independent national review body, such as 
an ombudsman, to handle environment-related 
complaints from the public.

ENVIRONMENT6

The European Environment Agency
The European Environment Agency (EEA) collects 
national data to produce European datasets. It 
develops and maintains indicators and reports on 
the state of the environment. Based in Copenhagen, 
it began work in 1994.

Its mandate is to help the EU and its member 
countries to make informed decisions about 
improving the environment, integrating 
environmental considerations into economic policies 
to move towards sustainability and to coordinate 
the European environment information and 
observation network.

Encouraging eco-innovation
Eco-innovation is any form of innovation aiming at, 
or resulting in, significant and demonstrable 
progress towards the goal of sustainable 
development, by reducing impacts on the 
environment, enhancing resilience to environmental 
pressures or achieving a more efficient and 
responsible use of natural resources.

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Taxes and subsidies can act 
as incentives to persuade 
companies and consumers to 
go green.

THE EUROPEAN UNION EXPLAINED 
 
7

Awareness raising

Encouraging innovation

Environmental technology industries are already an 
important part of the EU economy. However, with the 
exception of renewable energy, eco-innovation has 
penetrated markets relatively slowly. Bottlenecks 
include the failure of market prices to accurately reflect 
environmental costs and benefits, and incentives and 
subsidies that sustain wasteful practices and rigid 
economic structures.

The EU’s Eco-innovation Action Plan highlights the 
specific drivers of eco-innovation and barriers to its 
uptake. Support is available to finance research, 
innovation and eco-innovative companies. To encourage 
greater take-up of green technologies, the EU is 
promoting green public procurement, costing products 
over their life-cycle and eco-labelling.

The European Commission promotes awareness of the 
environment in many imaginative ways. An annual 
highlight is Green Week in Brussels when thousands of 
participants debate a key environmental issue, such as 
biodiversity or water, over 4 days.
Competitions are another popular stimulus. The EU’s 
Green Capital Award showcases the environmental care 
and imagination which cities across Europe are making. 
Each year, competition to win the coveted title becomes 
more intense. Other awards recognise the contributions 
which businesses, public authorities and individual 
projects make to the environment.

Green Capitals
To win the title, a city has to have a consistent 
record of achieving high environmental standards, 
be committed to further sustainable development 
goals and serve as a role model for others. Winners:
 — 2010: Stockholm
 — 2011: Hamburg
 — 2012: Vitoria-Gasteiz
 — 2013: Nantes
 — 2014: Copenhagen
 — 2015: Bristol
 — 2016: Ljubljana

http://www.europeangreencapital.eu

ENVIRONMENT8

What the EU does

Resources are necessary for the economy and 
environment to function. But the days of plentiful 
supply of inexpensive raw materials — a key factor in 
the major economic progress made during the last two 
centuries — are over.

Population growth and rising living standards are 
increasing demand and raising the price and scarcity of 
natural resources like the metals, minerals and 
foodstuffs we depend upon. Every day, the global 
population increases by 200 000. By the end of the next 
decade, an additional 2 billion people may have joined 
the high-consumption middle classes in developing 
countries.

Demand and supply are increasingly going in different 
directions. If resource use continues at the present rate, 
mankind will require the equivalent of more than two 
planets by 2050 to satisfy its needs and the hopes of 
millions for a better quality of life will be dashed.

Resource efficiency

To address the challenges, the European Commission 
has made resource efficiency one of the flagship 
initiatives of its 2020 strategy. This means producing 
more value with less input, using resources in a 
sustainable way and managing them more efficiently 
throughout their life-cycle. It requires innovation, 
changes in production and consumption patterns and 
the right incentives and price signals.

In late 2011, EU governments adopted the Roadmap to 
a Resource-Efficient Europe. This emphasises the need 
for a sea change in economic, political and personal 
behaviour. It contains milestones across different policy 
areas to arrive at a European economy within 40 years 
that provides a high standard of living with a much 
reduced impact on the environment.

Recycling reduces pressure on primary raw materials.

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THE EUROPEAN UNION EXPLAINED 
 
9

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The Natura 2000 network covers almost 18 % of EU territory 
and protects species and habitats in their natural environment.

The need to make efficient use of finite resources is a 
theme being integrated into all EU policies. To 
encourage individuals to change their behaviour, the 
European Commission launched a public information 
campaign in autumn 2011. To drive the process 
forward, it created a high level panel of policymakers, 
industrialists and experts with extensive economic and 
environmental expertise, who delivered a set of 
recommendations in the spring of 2014.

Resource efficiency
Resource efficiency aims to decouple economic 
growth from resource use. It pushes the economy to 
create more with less, delivering greater value with 
less input, using resources in a sustainable way and 
minimising their impact on the environment.

ENVIRONMENT 
 
10

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Healthy ecosystems are key to Europe’s biodiversity.

Biodiversity

A well-managed network like Natura 2000 can make a 
major contribution towards the EU’s wider environmental 
objectives. One of these is to halt and reverse the loss 
of biodiversity — the term used to emphasise the 
richness of the natural world with all its species and 
genetic variety — and ecosystems by 2020.

These are important in their own right, but they also 
provide a vital stream of goods notably food, fibre, fuel 
and medicines and essential services such as climate 
regulation, flood prevention, water purification, 
pollination and soil formation. All are necessary for 
economic prosperity, security, health and quality of life. 

In 2011, just months after the world agreed an 
ambitious global agenda in Nagoya, the EU adopted an 
updated biodiversity strategy. This has as a headline 
target halting the loss of biodiversity and degradation of 
ecosystem services in the EU by 2020, restoring them as 
far as feasible and increasing Europe’s contribution 
towards averting biodiversity loss globally.

THE EUROPEAN UNION EXPLAINED 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
11

Protected areas

Recognising that nature does not respect national 
borders, the EU has strong nature protection 
legislation. This has culminated in the creation of 
Natura 2000, a pan-European ecological network of 
areas designed to protect species and habitats in 
their natural environment. Consisting of over  
26 000 sites, the network is the largest in the world. 
Now virtually complete, it covers almost 18 % of EU 
territory — an area equivalent in size to Germany, 
Poland and the Czech Republic combined.

The seeds of the network were sown in 1979 when 
the EU passed its first major piece of nature 
protection legislation, the birds directive. This 
protects all wild birds in the EU (some 500 species) 
and requires EU countries to identify and protect 
particularly important sites.

The second trigger was the habitats directive. This 
obliges EU countries to protect the habitats of 
endangered species of plants, animals and habitats.  
It now covers some 1 500 rare and threatened 

plants and animals, as well as around 230 valuable 
habitat types, such as hay meadows, heathland and 
salt marshes, which act as building blocks for 
ecosystems.

Natura 2000 recognises that humans are an 
integral part of nature and that the two work best in 
partnership with one another. Its aim is not to 
exclude economic activities but rather to place 
certain limits on them so as to safeguard valuable 
species and habitats. Its financing is integrated into 
key EU policy sectors. Agriculture, particularly its 
rural development strand with agri-environment 
and forest measures, is the most important of 
these. Cohesion policy plays a major role in funding 
investments, especially in the new Member States.

Natura 2000 nurtures healthy ecosystems which 
provide valuable services such as fresh water, 
carbon storage and protection against floods and 
coastal erosion. Collectively, these services are 
estimated to be worth €200-€300 billion a year 
— significantly more than the annual cost of some 
€6 billion to manage the network.

The EU's economy uses 16 tonnes of materials per person per 
year, of which 6 tonnes becomes waste.

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ENVIRONMENT 
 
12

Other main EU achievements

In addition to the two cross-cutting policy areas of 
resource efficiency and biodiversity protection, the 
Union is highly active on specific environmental issues.

CHEMICALS: Chemicals are an essential component of 
our daily lives. However, some can severely damage 
human health and others could be dangerous if not 
properly used. To ensure chemicals are safe, to protect 
the environment and to encourage the competitiveness 
of one of Europe’s major industries, the EU has the 
most advanced chemicals legislation in the world; it is 
called REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation 
and Restriction of Chemicals).

All chemical substances manufactured or imported into 
the EU must be registered with the Helsinki-based 
European Chemicals Agency. By 2018, every chemical 
used in the EU will have to comply with this 
requirement. If not, it cannot be sold in the Union. 
Particularly strict rules apply to the most hazardous 
products.

Companies are responsible for assessing and managing 
any risks from the chemicals they use or sell in the 
Union and for providing customers with the appropriate 
safety advice on how they should be handled.

WASTE: The EU’s economy uses 16 tonnes of materials 
per person per year, of which 6 tonnes becomes waste, 
half of it going to landfill. If waste cannot be avoided, 
then the European Commission’s message is to reuse, 
recycle and recover what can be a valuable resource. 
Landfill taxes and ‘pay as you throw’ schemes can help 
achieve this. Some Member States have already 
achieved recycling rates of over 80 % and have 
virtually eliminated landfill. Others still have some way 
to go.

Legislation on specific items such as waste electrical 
and electronic equipment, packaging, batteries and 
accumulators or end-of-life vehicles is already in place 
and contributing to resource efficiency.

AIR: Over the past 20 years, the EU has successfully 
reduced the levels of a number of pollutants. Lead 
emissions, for example, have fallen by some 90 %. 
Despite the progress made, air pollution ranks high 
among Europeans’ environmental concerns and causes 
many premature deaths every year. The Union still has 
some way to go to meet its aim of securing levels of air 
quality that do not give rise to significant negative 
impacts on, and risks to, human health and the 
environment.

In 2013, taking account of the latest science and 
cost-effective measures, the Commission presented a 
‘Clean Air’ policy package of measures to further 
improve air quality, updating existing legislation and 
reducing harmful emissions from industry, traffic, 
energy plants and agriculture, with a view to lowering 
their impact on human health and the environment.

WATER: In recent decades, the EU has put in place a 
comprehensive policy to ensure the quality of Europe’s 
water. Initially, this addressed health concerns. It was 
followed by measures to address the impact on the 
environment of major water-using sectors such as 
agriculture, industry and domestic households.

The EU’s main piece of water legislation, the water 
framework directive, requires all rivers, lakes, coastal 
waters and groundwater to be clean by 2015. Member 
States have to check the state of their waters and draw 
up plans explaining how they will clean them.

Another piece of European legislation, the marine 
strategy framework directive, adopts a coordinated 
approach to managing human activities that have an 
impact on the marine environment. It requires national 
measures to be introduced from 2015 to ensure marine 
litter does not harm the coastal and marine 
environment and aims to have marine waters healthy 
by 2020.

A European Commission blueprint to safeguard Europe’s 
water resources up to 2020 and beyond should help the 
EU meet its targets. This will operate like a toolkit to 
improve the implementation of water management, 
mainstreaming it into other policy areas.

THE EUROPEAN UNION EXPLAINED13

NOISE: Noise pollution has been linked to a range of 
health problems. It also harms wildlife. The EU 
regulates noise from a number of sources, including 
motor vehicles, trains and equipment used outdoors. 
Under the EU directive on environmental noise, passed 
in 2002, Member States must draw up maps of noise 
levels in their larger towns and cities, and for major 
roads, railways and civil airports. They then need to 
come up with plans to tackle the problem.

FORESTS: Forests are being cut down at an alarming 
rate around the world. The EU has called for global 
deforestation to be halved by 2020 and halted entirely 
by 2030. It is working with various timber-exporting 
countries to improve forest governance. EU legislation 
now minimises the risk of illegally harvested timber 
being sold in the Union.

SOIL: There is no specific EU legislation on soil, but 
many of the problems affecting soils are addressed by 
specific measures for water, waste, chemicals, industrial 
pollution, nature protection and pesticides. The EU has a 
strategy specifically addressing all the different threats 
to soil, particularly from farming practices and 
industrial processes. In 2012, the European Commission 
produced guidelines drawing attention to the dangers of 
covering soil with impermeable material such as 
concrete and offering more sustainable alternatives.

Bathing water
The annual European bathing water quality report 
provides the most up-to-date picture of the state of 
health of over 22 000 coastal and inland bathing 
sites across the 28 EU Member States plus 
Switzerland and Albania.

It confirms that the overall quality of bathing 
waters in the EU has improved markedly since 
1990. In that year, 9.2 % of coastal sites and 
11.9 % of inland bathing areas did not comply with 
the EU legislation in place. By 2013, those figures 
had fallen to 1.9 % and 2.4 % respectively.

It is now easy for the public to check the status of 
the water wherever they plan to swim. The bathing 
water section of the Water Information System for 
Europe (WISE) can be consulted on the EEA’s 
bathing water website. The Eye on Earth — water 
watch application can be used to zoom in on a 
section of the coast, riverbank or lake in either 
street map or bird’s eye format.

http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/water/interactive/
bathing/state-of-bathing-waters-1

Thanks to EU environmental legislation, the overall quality of 
bathing water in the Union has improved markedly over the 
past two decades.

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ENVIRONMENT 
 
 
 
14

The road ahead

Ensuring the sustainability of our environment, the 
preservation of our natural resources and the 
conservation of our marine biological resources are key 
policy objectives requiring action at all levels. Protecting 
the environment and maintaining our competitiveness 
can go hand-in-hand, and environment policy also plays 
a key role in creating jobs and stimulating investment. 
Europe’s economy needs to be transformed to derive 
more value from fewer materials and changes in 
consumption patterns are necessary. Policies to 
encourage research, bring eco-innovation to the market 
and raise consumer awareness can all contribute to this 
transformation.

The EU’s Environment Action Programme 
(EAP) until 2020

The general EU Environment Action Programme to 2020 
sets out a long-term environment strategy designed to 
be sufficiently flexible to respond to the challenges 
ahead and the increasingly systemic risks they contain. 
It provides an overall approach towards the 
environment, setting the course for a green and 
competitive economy that will safeguard our natural 
resources and health for present and future 
generations.

Demand for food, feed and fibre may increase by 70 % by 
2050. If we carry on using resources at the current rate, we 
will need more than two planets to sustain us. 

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THE EUROPEAN UNION EXPLAINED 
 
15

The EU has a well-developed environment policy with a 
complete and mature legal framework, which needs to 
be implemented. In addition to the significant 
advantages for health and the environment, the 
benefits of ensuring that EU environment legislation is 
actually implemented are threefold: the creation of a 
level playing field for economic actors operating in the 
internal market; the stimulation of innovation; and the 
promotion of first-mover advantages for European 
companies in many sectors. The costs associated with 
failure to implement legislation, by contrast, are high, 
broadly estimated at around €50 billion a year, 
including costs related to infringement cases. The 
Commission also receives numerous complaints directly 
from Union citizens, many of which could be better 
addressed at Member State or local level. Improving the 
implementation of the Union environment acquis at 
Member State level will therefore be given priority in 
the coming years. 

Individual areas

More than ever before, environment policy leading up to 
2020 will stress the merits of switching to a greener, 
more circular economy. This is the simplest short cut to 
solving a number of longstanding problems such as 
health concerns, environmental degradation and 
unemployment while achieving sustained economic 
growth. Eco-design, waste prevention, recycling and 
reuse can bring net annual savings for EU businesses of 
up to €600 billion, while also bringing significant 
reductions in the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions. 
It is now widely accepted that improving the state of 
the environment cannot be delivered through 
environment policy alone, and that environmental 
objectives need to be embedded in other policy domains 
as well. Achieving the targets of the EU biodiversity 
strategy, for instance, and halting biodiversity loss 
within the EU by 2020 will require the protection of 
biodiversity and ecosystems to be an integral part of 
other EU policies, especially agriculture and fisheries. 
Economic prosperity, growth and wellbeing will not be 
sustainable if better care is not taken of the planet’s 
natural capital since this is essential for so many 
industries and economic sectors.

Challenges

There is no escaping the fact that Europe and its 
environment face some serious global challenges. 
These include an increasing world population, growing 
middle classes with high consumption rates, rapid 
economic growth in emerging economies, constantly 
rising energy demand and intensified global competition 
for resources. Most of these are outside Europe’s direct 
influence, but it can help other countries to move 
toward more sustainable development by promoting 
more effective environmental governance globally.
However, a lot can be done to make the European 
environment more resilient to future risks. The EU has 
unparalleled information resources and technologies, 
new resource accounting methods, an established 
culture of precaution and prevention, a strong record of 
rectifying damage at source and making polluters pay. 
Environmental governance can become more effective 
through a broader commitment to environmental 
monitoring and up-to-date reporting of environmental 
pollutants and waste, using the best available 
information and technologies. Better implementation of 
existing policies will help achieve the EU’s goals and 
provide regulatory stability for businesses.

Vision

All this aims to ensure that by 2050 EU citizens live in a 
safe and healthy natural environment which is 
managed in ways that respect environmental limits and 
ensure ecological resilience. The following 2050 vision 
from the general EU Environment Action Programme is 
intended to help guide action up to and beyond 2020:
‘In 2050, we live well, within the planet’s ecological 
limits. Our prosperity and healthy environment stem 
from an innovative, circular economy where nothing is 
wasted and where natural resources are managed 
sustainably, and biodiversity is protected, valued and 
restored in ways that enhance our society’s resilience. 
Our low-carbon growth has long been decoupled from 
resource use, setting the pace for a safe and 
sustainable global society.’

ENVIRONMENT16

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8
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8
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E
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C

Further reading

 X For an overview of EU environmental policy: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/index_en.htm
 X For information on the European Environment Agency: http://www.eea.europa.eu 
 X For specific information on the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemical 

substances (REACH): http://echa.europa.eu 

 X Questions about the European Union? Europe Direct can help: 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 

http://europedirect.europa.eu

ISBN 978-92-79-42633-9 
doi:10.2775/90841

THE EUROPEAN UNION EXPLAINED