Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2020)652 - General Union Environment Action Programme to 2030 - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2020)652 - General Union Environment Action Programme to 2030. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2020)652  |
| date | 14-10-2020 |
1. CONTEXTOFTHEPROPOSAL
On 4 December 2019, the European Environment Agency (EEA) published its report entitled “The European Environment – state and outlook 2020” (SOER)1, and its results are sobering. The current environmental, climate and sustainability challenges are of an unprecedented scale and urgency, requiring immediate and concerted action and systemic solutions. The Union’s environment policies have delivered substantial benefits over the last decades without affecting EU long-term competitiveness, and in recent years the acquis has been increasingly shaped by an ambitious long-term vision, targets and strategic framework policies, effectively reducing environmental pressures. However, biodiversity loss and ecosystem services degradation, climate change and its impacts, and unsustainable use of resources, pollution and associated risks to human health and well-being, nature, ecosystems, and the economy all require decisive further action in the EU and globally.
On 11 December 2019, the European Commission responded to these challenges with the adoption of the European Green Deal2 – an ambitious agenda for the EU to become the first climate neutral continent by 2050 and to protect, conserve and enhance the EU’s natural capital, and protect the health and well-being of citizens from environmental risks and impacts. Based on a regenerative growth model that gives back to the planet more than it takes, it outlines the environmental priorities for the coming years and the Union’s ambition to transform its economy for a sustainable future while leaving no one behind, to turn these objectives into reality, its designs a set of deeply transformative policies and urged the Union to enhance its leadership on the global stage on climate and environmental issues.
Following the wide debate on the Communication “A Clean Planet for All’3, the EU submitted in March 2020 its long-term strategy under the Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change4, committing to become a climate-neutral economy by 2050. The Commission proposed to enshrine this target in the European Climate Law.5 The European Commission also adopted a number of new strategic initiatives, notably a new Circular Economy Action Plan for a clean and competitive Europe6, a Biodiversity Strategy for 20307 and a Farm to Fork Strategy8.
The EU has also adopted a comprehensive response to the coronavirus crisis, which is causing a heavy toll on life and livelihoods and has led to unprecedented challenges to policymaking, aggravated by a severe economic downturn. The Next Generation EU Recovery Plan proposed by the European Commission on 27 May 2020 and endorsed by the Extraordinary European Council of July 2020 highlights the status of the European Green Deal as Europe’s new growth strategy and its role in achieving a sustainable and rapid recovery as well as ensuring long term predictability on the path to climate neutrality, and ultimately a just and
Report of the European Environment Agency: The European environment - state and outlook 2020, Knowledge for transition to a sustainable Europe (2019). COM(2019) 640 final. COM (2018)773 final.
Submission by Croatia and the European Commission on behalf of the European Union and its Member States, Long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategy of the European Union and its Member States (2020, https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/HR-03-06-
2020%20EU%20Submission%20on%20Long%20term%20strategy.pdf). COM(2020) 80 final. COM (2020) 98 final. COM(2020) 380 final
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fair transition, which leaves no-one behind. The 8th Environment Action Programme, with its long-term vision and environmental priority objectives it shares with the Green Deal, will support the EU’s common commitment to a green recovery.
Environment action programmes have guided the development of EU environment policy since the early 1970s. The Seventh Environment Action Programme (7th EAP) will expire on 31 December 2020 and its Article 4 i requires the Commission, if appropriate, to present a proposal for an Eighth Environment Action Programme (8th EAP) in a timely manner with a view to avoiding a gap between the 7th and the 8th EAP. The European Green Deal announced the adoption of a new environment action programme.
The Council, the European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions have called upon the Commission to present at the latest by early 2020 a proposal for an 8th EAP.
2. LEGALBASIS, SUBSIDIARITYAND PROPORTIONALITY
This proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on a new General Union Environment Action Programme to 2030 is based on Article 192 i TFEU. In order to ensure ownership of this Programme and delivery on its priority objectives by the EU and its Member States, this proposal for a Decision sets out an enabling framework supporting the achievements of the priority objectives and ensures that progress towards the objectives is measured on a regular basis.
The objectives of this proposal for a Decision cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States alone. Since environment and climate policy is an area of shared competence in the EU and a decentralised policy, one of the purposes of this Programme is to create common ownership of all three EU institutions and the Member States of its objectives, providing policy makers and other stakeholders - including regions and cities, businesses, social partners, civil society organisations and individual citizens - with a predictable framework and direction for action.
3. RESULTSOFEVALUATIONSANDSTAKEHOLDERCONSULTATIONS
On 15 May 2019, the Commission published a report on the evaluation of the 7th EAP9. The report was preceded by an extensive consultation process that took place in the course of 2018 and consisted of an open public consultation, a targeted Member States’ consultation, a targeted stakeholder consultation as well as two public workshops.
The evaluation revealed that the 7th EAP is generally perceived as an effective and high-level strategic tool that guides environmental policy. For many, the EAP also functions as a planning tool, providing environment policy continuity – including with its long-term vision, accountability and predictability for European Commission actions, in addition to having a positive influence on mainstreaming and streamlining environmental policy. The priority objectives of the 7th EAP were generally considered to still be valid, in particular its 2050 vision.
On 22 November 2017, the European Parliament published an implementation assessment of the 7th EAP10, followed by a report on its implementation on 6 March 2018 and a resolution11 on 17 April 2018.
COM (2019) 233 final.
European Parliament’s European Impact Assessment: Implementation of the 7th Environment Action
On 31 July 2018, the European Committee of the Regions published a study on the local and regional dimension of an 8th EAP12, followed by an Opinion13, adopted on 7 February 2019.
On 11-12 June 2019, following up on discussions at the Informal Environment Council on 29 and 30 October 2018 in Graz (Austria), a Workshop on the Future Environment Action Programme took place in Hainburg (Austria). On 4 October 2019, the Council adopted Conclusions on the “8th Environment Action Programme - Turning the Trends Together”14 under the Finnish Presidency of the Council.
4. BUDGETARYIMPLICATIONS
This proposal for a Decision has been developed in line with the Commission proposal for the EU Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027. The proposal includes a financial fiche introducing the need for additional resources in the European Environment Agency (EEA) and in the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in supporting the new monitoring, measuring and reporting framework of this Programme.
The involvement of the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is paramount to this work and to achieving the objectives of the 8th EAP. The new monitoring and reporting framework proposed for the 8th EAP will include, to the largest extent possible, existing monitoring tools and indicators mainly based on European statistics and data from the EEA and ECHA, thus avoiding duplication and limiting administrative burden for Member States. This means that additional tasks are entrusted to these agencies so that they can fully contribute to the achievement of the priorities and creating the enabling conditions set out in Articles 3 and 4 of this Programme.
5. OTHERELEMENTS
Explanation of the specific provisions of the proposal:
The overarching aim of the 8th EAP is to accelerate the Union’s transition to a climate-neutral, resource-efficient clean and circular economy in a just and inclusive way and achieve the environmental objectives of the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals, fully endorsing the environmental and climate objectives of the European Green Deal.
Article 1
The current proposal serves to increase coherence and synergies between actions across all level of governance by measuring progress towards environmental and climate objectives in an integrated way. In line with the European Green Deal’s ‘do no harm’ oath, it supports the reduction of pressures on the environment and the climate and strengthening the integrated approach to policy development and implementation, notably by mainstreaming sustainability in all relevant initiatives and projects at national and EU level.
Article 2
11 European Parliament resolution of 17 April 2018 on the implementation of the 7th Environment Action Programme (2017/2030(INI)).
12 Committee of the Regions: Towards an 8th Environment Action Programme – Local and regional dimension (2018).
13 OJ C 168, 16.5.2019, p. 27–36.
Responsibility for achieving environment and climate-related goals and objectives is shared by the Union and its Member States and requires action by all actors, governments at EU, national, regional and local level, social partners, civil society, citizens and businesses.
Article 2 lays down the thematic priority objectives in the context of a 2050 long-term objective of “Living well, within the planetary boundaries”, already established in the 7th EAP.
Article 3
The European Green Deal underlines the necessity to ensure that policies and legislation are enforced and delivered effectively.
Article 3 provides the basis for a joint understanding and commitment on the enabling conditions required to reach these thematic priority objectives, thus ensuring coherence in the implementation at the appropriate level. The Commission announced it will improve the way its better regulation guidelines and supporting tools address sustainability and innovation issues, with the objective that all EU initiatives live up to a green oath to ‘do no harm’.
Article 4
While individual environmental legislative instruments require regular reporting by Member States on specific environmental policies, there is no comprehensive framework foreseen in EU law to ensure a coordinated approach to the overall achievement of the Union’s environmental objectives. The European Green Deal announced that the new Environment Action Programme will include a new monitoring mechanism in order to ensure that the Union remains on track to meet its environmental objectives.
This 8th EAP monitoring framework should be without prejudice to the existing environmental and climate reporting and governance tools, including those of the Energy Union and Climate Action Governance.
– Measuring progress towards environment and climate objectives in the wider
context of sustainability, wellbeing and resilience
Measuring the EU’s and its Member States’ progress towards achieving the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals requires an integrated framework for environmental, social and economic objectives. The Council15 and the European Social and Economic Committee16 have called for measuring economic performance and societal progress “beyond GDP” and shift towards using ‘wellbeing’ as a compass for policy, a move also supported by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development17. Members of the European Parliament have organised the Post Growth 2018 Conference18 together with stakeholders.
In this context, the 8th EAP monitoring framework will provide the environment and climate input to the EU’s overall efforts to measure progress towards sustainability, wellbeing and resilience, including disaster resilience; it should inform policy makers and stakeholders if the Union and the Member States are on track to achieving a systemic transformation.
Setting up the 8th EAP monitoring framework should also be seen in the context of other governance and monitoring exercises, notably the European Semester, the Eurostat’s SDG Monitoring Report and the Annual Strategic Foresight Report, which also build on the
See e.g. https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-10414-2019-INIT/en/pdf. www.eesc.europa.eu/en/our-work">https://www.eesc.europa.eu/en/our-work.
See e.g. the OECD Well-being Framework, the OECD Framework for Policy Action on Inclusive Growth, the Better Life Initiative and the New Approaches to Economic Challenges Initiative.
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available data and use indicators that are most relevant for the respective policy objectives. While those governance and monitoring tools serve difference purposes, they should be increasingly interconnected with a view to further improving their coherence.
– Towards an 8th EAP headline indicator set
The monitoring of the Seventh Environment Action Programme was carried out by the European Environment Agency, which published yearly environmental indicator reports19. A scoreboard of nearly 30 indicators was developed to monitor the priority objectives of the 7th EAP.
The 8th EAP monitoring framework should reflect its new priority objectives. It should comprise a limited number of key indicators for high-level communication, which tell a coherent story about the state of the environment, the main pressures and the effectiveness of our response. Those indicators should also be relevant to the overall goals of increasing the wellbeing and the resilience of our economies and societies.
The selection of an 8th EAP headline indicators will take due account of ongoing work streams to improve the monitoring of biodiversity, circular economy and zero pollution, all aimed to be finalised by 2021/22, as well as of other monitoring tools covering environment and climate policy, including the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action. It should build on available data in the Member States and at the EU level, in particular those operated by the European Environment Agency as well as the European Statistical System.
The European Environment Agency and the European Chemicals Agency shall support the Commission in improving the availability and relevance of data. This includes closing indicator gaps, in particular monitoring of policy related to the zero pollution ambition and links between environment, social and health policies.
The setting up of the 8th EAP monitoring framework will be supported by a new database of environmental indicators – an online and easily accessible library of indicators creating a complete and structured overview of the several hundred existing environmental indicators.
– Planetary Boundaries
The process to develop an 8th EAP monitoring framework will provide an opportunity to explore the potential of the ongoing workstream in the Commission’s Joint Research Centre, the European Environment Agency and others on the planetary boundaries (e.g. freshwater use, land use change, ocean acidification) and on the Union consumption footprint, including deforestation and forest degradation in third countries.
While climate science and in particular the work of the International Panel on Climate Change provide reliable data and information on the level of greenhouse gas emissions compatible with the objective of the Paris Agreement to hold global temperature increase to well below 2°C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C compared to pre-industrialised levels, the work for other planetary boundaries is still in progress. Advancing such work is important to inform policy makers and stakeholders on whether environmental policies are ambitious enough to keep Europe within the planet’s safe operating space20.
Consultation process on the 8th EAP
headline indicators
The Commission will launch a wide consultation process with other EU institutions, Member States and stakeholders to design a comprehensive 8th EAP monitoring framework, based on a consultative document outlining the proposed methodology and steps to be taken.
See e.g. www.eea.europa.eu/publications">https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications
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Based on these consultations, the Commission intends to present an 8th EAP headline indicator set by the end of 2021.
The procedure will be closely coordinated with the ongoing workstreams announced by the European Green Deal to design or review the monitoring frameworks for circular economy, biodiversity and zero pollution to ensure overall coherence and reduce administrative burden.
Article 5 - Evaluation
Article 5 foresees an evaluation of the 8th EAP in 2029, before its expiry by the end of 2030.