European Executive Encourages Environmental Integration

BRUSSELS, Belgium, June 3, 2004 (ENS) - Some progress towards integrating environmental thinking into policy decisions of the European Union has been made since 1998, but much remains to be done, finds a report published Wednesday by the European Commission, the EU's executive branch.

The report assesses progress on the so-called Cardiff process launched by EU heads of state and government in 1998 to integrate environmental concerns into other EU policy decisions.

Rush hour at the A1 Gateshead Western Bypass in the United Kingdom. (Photo courtesy FreeFoto)

Further steps are needed to reduce fishing effort.

And the EU should do more to promote environmental concerns in World Trade Organization negotiations and in regional and bilateral trade agreements, the Commission's report concludes.

The Cardiff process recognizes that the only way to tackle worrying environmental trends, such as climate change, declining fish stocks and emissions of pollutants, and to move towards sustainable development, is to make environmental issues central to the policy decisions in sectors that have significant environmental impacts.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder put the goal into practice this week at the Renewables 2004 conference in Bonn by announcing new funding for renewable sources of energy in Germany.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder unveils new funding for renewable energy at the Renewables 2004 conference in Bonn. (Photo courtesy Renewables 2004)

Now the European Council of Ministers needs to re-invigorate the process of environmental integration and deliver on the strategies that already exist, the European Commission reported, and failure to integrate environmental thinking means ongoing costs to society.

Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said, “This report shows the need to push ahead with environmental integration to achieve sustainable development. Failure to integrate environmental thinking now may commit us to unsustainable trends for years to come, at great cost to ourselves and future generations.

"Look at last year's hot summer, which contributed to the premature deaths of 20,000 people and caused agricultural losses of €10 billion in the EU. The heat wave was in line with what experts expect will happen more often unless we succeed in curbing climate change," Wallstrom said.

A map of day time land surface temperatures collected in the two years from 2001 through 2003 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite. (Photo courtesy NASA)

Since EU leaders met in Cardiff, Wales six years ago the Council of Ministers has developed nine sectoral strategies, for agriculture, transport, energy, industry, internal market, development, fisheries, economics and finance and foreign affairs.

This process has been successful in putting environmental concerns on the agenda of Council meetings, and has in some cases led to more environmentally friendly policies. However, the quality and ambition of the strategies varies between sectors, as has the political commitment to the process of environmental integration, the report found.

The report makes a number of recommendations for improving the effectiveness of the Cardiff Process and the impact of environmental integration on the ground.

• The different Council formations, such as ministers of environment, ministers of agriculture and fisheries, ministers of trade, need to place more emphasis on delivering on their existing commitments to environmental integration and on improving the implementation, monitoring and review of their integration strategies.

• The report calls for progress in producing the reviews of the integration strategies planned by the Council for the end of 2003 and 2004. It also suggests extending the Cardiff Process to other sectors, in particular tourism, research, cohesion policy and education.

• The institutional and top-down approach of the Cardiff Process needs to be complemented and reinforced by action from actors at other levels. Member States and the Commission should identify and exchange information on win-win solutions and best practices. One of the fastest routes to environmental integration is to set prices in a way that they reflect the costs of products and services to the environment, as well as the use of market-based instruments to achieve environmental objectives cost-effectively.

• A stronger political commitment is needed. The report suggests that the European Council take the lead in this respect.

The report will now be sent to the Council. It will also feed into the preparation of the 2004 Environmental Policy Review, which will in turn contribute to the Commission’s 2005 report to the Spring European Council.

The report is available under What's New at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/index_en.htm