Formandsskabets synteserapport vedrørende integration af miljøhensyn i sektorpolitikker
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Europaudvalget
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Det Europæiske
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Medlemmerne af Folketingets Europaudvalg og deres stedfortrædere |
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Til underretning for Folketingets Europaudvalg vedlægges i forbindelse med Det Europæiske Råd i Göteborg den 15.-16. juni 2001 formandskabets synteserapport vedrørende integration af miljøhensyn i sektorpolitikker, 9096/1/01.
Den danske version af rapporten fremsendes, så snart den måtte foreligge.
The Helsinki Summit concluded that the Council's work on sectoral strategies for the integration of the Environmental Dimension into other policy areas should be concluded and submitted to the Göteborg Summit, which will make a general overview and provide guidelines for the further work.
The Presidency presented a draft synthesis report on progress and achievements on environmental integration into EU sectoral policies to the Environment Working Group. Member States have commented on that report and the key elements are now contained in the Report annexed to this note.
This paper, together with the nine sectoral strategies, will also be presented to the General Affairs Council and will provide an important input for discussions at the Göteborg Summit.
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ANNEX EUM 2001/851/I | ||
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30 May 2001 | ||
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Ministry of the Environment Stockholm, Sweden | ||
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Ministry of the Environment Stockholm, Sweden |
Environmental integration into
– A presidency synthesis report on progress and achievements
This report is produced by the Presidency with the purpose to give a summary of the progress in the Cardiff process for environmental integration into sectoral policies and to give recommendations for future actions, as a basis for decisions at the European Council in Gothenburg.
1. Background *
1.1 The Cardiff process *
1.2 Other EU strategies and processes *
2. Presidency conclusions and recommendations *
2.1 General conclusions *
2.2 The role of the European Council *
2.3 The role of the Environment Council *
2.4 The role of sectoral Councils *
2.5 The role of the Commission. *
2.6 Links with the Sustainable Development Strategy *
2.7 Possible elements to be added in Göteborg *
- 1.1 The Cardiff process
- 1.2 Other EU strategies and processes
- 2. Presidency conclusions and recommendations
In order to put into effect Article 6 of the EC Treaty, the European Council in Luxembourg (December 1997) asked the Commission to prepare a strategy on environmental integration. The Cardiff European Council (June 1998) welcomed the subsequent Commission Communication "Partnership for Integration" and invited all relevant formations of the Council to establish their own strategies for giving effect to environmental integration and sustainable development within their respective policy area s. They were asked to monitor progress, taking account of the Commission’s suggested guidelines ("Partnership for Integration") and to identify indicators. The Transport, Energy and Agriculture Councils were invited to start this process.
The Vienna European Council invited three more Council formations to join in the process, i.e. the Councils on Development, Internal Market and Industry. The European Council later invited General Affairs, ECOFIN and Fisheries at the meeting in Cologne. Three waves have thus been commissioned.
The European Council in Helsinki (10-11 December 1999) asked the Council to bring this work to a conclusion and submit to the European Council in Göteborg in June 2001 comprehensive strategies with the possibility of including a timetable for further measures and a set of indicators for these sectors. The Commission and the Council were urged to develop adequate instruments and applicable data for the purposes of evaluation and follow-up of sectoral strategies.
The Progress can be illustrated in the table below.
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Sector |
Before 2001 |
Spring 2001 |
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Transport |
Strategy October 1999 |
Council resolution 4-5 April |
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Energy |
Strategy December 1999 |
Council resolution 14-15 May |
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Agriculture |
Strategy November 1999 |
Council conclusions 24 April |
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Enterprise |
Report November 1999 |
Council conclusions 14-15 May |
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Internal market |
Report December 1999 |
Adoption of strategy 31 May |
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Development cooperation |
- |
Adoption of strategy 30 May |
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Fisheries |
- |
Council Conclusions 25 April |
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ECOFIN |
Report December 2000 |
- |
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General Affairs |
- |
Council conclusions |
Table 1.1 Council decisions on Environmental integration strategies
The 6th Environment Action Programme (6EAP) under adoption by the Council and Parliament will set out the environmental priorities for the next ten years, i.e. climate change, nature and biodiversity, health and environment, and sustainable management of resources and wastes. The proposal lists more than 40 integration actions necessary for a proper level of implementation.
The EU Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS) is to be adopted at the European Council in Göteborg in June with the aim of developing a comprehensive approach for policy makers that takes into account economic, social and environmental concerns. It will set out appropriate long-term targets relevant to each of the problems identified.
The main aim of integrating environmental concerns into sector policies is to enhance sustainable development and make environmental and sectoral policies more effective with a better implementation and follow-up that is compatible with the different policy areas. It opens up new fields of cooperation between those responsible for environmental policy and sector representatives and allows the actors in the various policy areas to choose policies and measures that take account of the social and economic c onsiderations that exist within each sector. This was the reason for introducing Article 6 of the Treaty, which states that all policies should integrate environmental concerns with a view to promoting sustainable development. The Cardiff process is the major tool used for the implementation of Article 6 of the Treaty.
Progress in this work has been uneven. The presidency evaluation shows, that the Helsinki conclusions have not been followed by all Council formations. Even though all Councils will have arrived at the report stage by June, it remains true that the general timetable has not been followed. It should be kept in mind that the reasons that led to the launching of the sector integration process are still valid. The Cardiff process has only begun and should continue and deepen, not least in view of the need to follow up and build upon the results achieved so far in the sectors. It should be recognised that the Cardiff strategies are important tools both for the implementation of the environmental dimension of the SDS and the forthcoming 6EAP. The eight Council constellations responsible for the nine sectoral strategies should therefore get a renewed mandate in Göteborg and clear new time limits should be set.
There are several reasons behind the varying results. The policy areas that have come furthest are those that were first in line. The preconditions in the sectors vary a lot. Areas such as Transport, Agriculture, Energy and Fisheries have previously addressed environmental issues. The degree to which EU policies have direct implications for activities in the sector is another relevant aspect. For policy areas such as industry, internal market, development cooperation and general affairs the process has b een more complicated as interaction between environment and sector policies is more indirect and needs closer analysis and understanding. One important aspect is also at what stage the policy area has been in when it comes to major policy decisions.
One important lesson is that this process takes time. A satisfactory outcome may also hinge on satisfactory cooperation between environmental experts and those who formulate sector policy. A dialogue with sector stakeholders and NGOs at an early stage could also make the process more effective. Sectoral integration requires new attitudes, new co-operation methods and new understanding from all parties in the process, not least the environmental side.
Various studies launched by some Member States and this report indicates that when targets, indicators and follow-up are in place it will be easier to implement and update the strategies in a concrete manner.
EU policies may in many ways be linked to, or have consequences for countries outside, or currently outside the EU. The Council needs to pay attention to the external dimension in its future work, especially in view of the enlargement process.
2.2 The role of the European Council
The European Council has since its meeting in Luxembourg 1997 continuously advised the Council formations for nine sectors on the future development of sector strategies primarily relating to Article 6 in the Treaty. The European Council should continue to take on a guiding and co-ordinating role to ensure overall coherence and the effective monitoring of progress towards integration of the environment with a view to promote sustainable development. This requires setting up objectives for the work. The concept of environmental policy integration affects many existing EU policies and also their impact in and beyond Europe. In order to ensure credibility for European actions and initiatives, the sectoral strategies should be considered when reviewing the common policies such as the CAP, CFP, CTP or the Structural Funds. These wide-ranging effects are also an argument for the European Council to be involved in the process.
2.3 The role of the Environment Council
The Environment Council and the Commission should be concerned with identifying problems and acting as a partner and a catalyst to actively assist different sectors in their work. An annual input should be provided showing how the objectives in the 6th Environmental Action Programme and the subsequent thematic strategies as well as other general policies might be addressed by the sectors. The Environment Council should also provide full and early information on the environmental pressures, on the sta te of the environment and on the impact on nature and health. This includes publishing headline indicators and reports in cooperation with the European Environment Agency and other Council formations.
2.4 The role of sectoral Councils
The Council formations are fully responsible for the sectoral strategies. This implies that they are responsible for framing measures, for implementation, for consultations with stakeholders and NGOs in the sectors and for assessing the effects of environmental integration. The sectoral Councils should also implement suitable measures according to the objective in the 6EAP and the thematic strategies that are relevant for the policy area. They are also responsible for applying assessments and other instr uments to determine whether the intentions of the sector policies are being fulfilled. They are responsible for establishing appropriate indicators and a regular reporting mechanism to facilitate the reviews, adjustments and deepening of each strategy under the general principles given by the European Council.
2.5 The role of the Commission
The Commission should present a synthesis report each spring to take stock of progress. It should be based on an analysis of relevance and contents of sectoral activities. The Commission plays an important part in moving the process forward at sectoral level by presenting proposals to the Council constellations. Its commitment is crucial. The Commission should also identify cross-sectoral questions of importance. It is important to develop mechanisms to enable a coherent policy development. Here joint ex pert meetings, also involving Member States and others, as has been done in the transport sector could be tried. The Commission should actively involve stakeholders in the work. In order to increase coherence between sectors the Commission should identify the links between different sectors.
2.6 Links with the Sustainable Development Strategy
Sectoral strategies play an important role in the implementation of the environmental dimension of the Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS) that the European Council intends to adopt in Göteborg in June 2001.
Some of the nine sectors involved in the Cardiff process have explicitly been working with both environment and sustainable development as a joint concept as this was the mandate from Cardiff and the consecutive European councils in Vienna and Cologne. In this report the Cardiff strategies are regarded as the major tool for integrating the Environment protection requirement, with a view to promoting sustainable development according to article 6. In the future development of the strategies it should be t he choice of the individual sectors if the coordination of the three dimensions of sustainable development is to take place only within the framework of the Cardiff integration process or also in some other policy context relevant for the sector. A minimum requirement is that Environmental integration according to article 6 is accomplished.
The European Council should ask the various formations of the Council to report the progress on implementing article 6 of the Treaty, and the environmental dimension of the SDS.
Such a report can include an account of the considerations that have been made for the social and economic dimensions.
The follow-up and implementation of the various issues in the social and economic dimension already incorporated in the Lisbon strategy have their own logic and their own processes. These processes will continue.
It is recommended that the Commission include the work on sector integration in its annual spring synthesis report. The spring report could contain a brief account of the progress being made on the sectoral strategies, preferably on overall performance with regard to:
? Progress in implementation
? Plans for future development, implementation, review and adjustment
? Horizontal issues that need to be addressed by the European Council to ensure policy coherence (including education and research)
There should be a general assessment of the effects of the strategies in implementing article 6 of the treaty and the relevant objectives in the 6EAP and the SDS during the autumn of 2002, as a basis for the 2003 synthesis report.
In addition to review by the spring European Council the Cardiff strategies on environmental integration should continue to be followed up and reviewed by each Council constellation with the individual time intervals being linked to the different phases of implementation and to the logic in each sector.
2.7 Possible elements to be added in Göteborg
General
The general recommendations contained in this report could be an important basis for the Göteborg European Council when it addresses the future of the sector integration process in accordance with the decision taken at the European Council meeting in Helsinki. Sector integration should continue to be deepened and give input to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Strategy. Not all sectors have reached the stage where the strategy has been adopted and implementation can begin . In these cases, the work should rapidly be brought to an implementation phase, in line with the Helsinki Conclusions and a new timetable set. All Council formations should have adopted their strategies before the 2002 Spring European Council in order to enable implementation at the latest, immediately thereafter.
On a general level, it is also recommended that decision support systems such as Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) be used as an effective tool for safeguarding integration in decision-making and that the internalisation of environmental costs in market prices be considered crucial. It is important that these elements are incorporated after Göteborg, in cases where such practices are not already under way.
Regular follow-up and reporting based on indicators must be a fundamental part of the strategies. All strategies should be reviewed regularly, every second or third year. In this review it is important that also the follow-up of the relevant components of the SDS and the 6th Environmental Action Programme is considered as well as how integration has been reflected in central policy documents. Göteborg could also offer guidance to individual sectors.
New sectors
The Cardiff European Council invited all relevant formations of the Council to establish their own strategies. Article 6 has been the basis for the Cardiff process. Article 6 states that environmental protection shall be integrated into the policy areas listed in Article 3. The Council formations encompass all the issues concerned as Article 3 contains the common policy areas for the Community. Any Council formation can therefore undertake the task of developing a strategy.
An important question is whether new specified sectors should be added in Göteborg. Some policy areas are dealt with by Council formations that already have strategies for other areas of responsibility. The most prominent among them are tourism and consumer affairs, in the remit of the Internal Market Council, and telecommunications (Transport). It seems natural to incorporate these policy areas without further ado.
There are also Council formations that have not been given the task to develop a strategy in accordance with the Cardiff process, notably Education, Training and Research. They are important horizontal tools for attaining sustainable development and for the integration of environmental considerations in all sectors. As horizontal policy areas they are required to be supportive and catalytic in the realization of all Community policies. Accordingly, these policy areas need to be incorporated into the str ategies of the nine policy areas currently involved, as a means of achieving the strategy objectives. The development of an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable society can be promoted through equipping citizens with relevant education, training and other measures to raise the public awareness. This will make it possible for each and everyone to take responsibility for choices as critical and conscious consumers, employees, parents and voters, keeping and increasing quality of life for the ir own generation as well as for generations to come. Education for sustainable development must take account of local, regional and national characteristics and may therefore place varying degrees of emphasis on the three aspects of sustainability - economic, social and environmental issues.
Health is also a policy area worthy of consideration. An action program for public health for the years 2001-2006 is already under adoption by the Council. Environment-related health issues should be an integral part of the various integration strategies.
It is also urgent to point out areas such as education and research to be considered in the development of the strategies under way.
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