7th Environment Action Programme needs more compliance, more funding and more local government involvement - Main contents

​The success of the next EU environmental action programme depends on ensuring compliance, fully engaging Europe's local and regional authorities and committing sufficient funding, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) has argued. This was the main message following the adoption of an opinion on the "7th Environment Action Programme" presented by José Macário Correia (PT/EPP), Mayor of Faro, during the CoR's plenary on 30 May.

The 7th EAP sets out a framework for EU environmental legislation and looks to replace the previous programme which ended in July 2012. The European Commission has openly acknowledged that having reviewed the previous plan, far more needs to be done to respond to the growing environmental challenges facing Europe, especially as the EU has committed to moving towards an inclusive, resource-efficient and low-carbon economy - a target set out in the Europe 2020 strategy.

José Macário Correia's opinion argues that the new plan must push for greater compliance of EU legislation among the Members States at all levels of government if its long-term goals are to be achieved. The CoR welcomes the nine objectives outlined in the Commission's proposal which includes protecting nature and strengthening ecological resilience, boosting sustainable, resource-efficient, low-carbon growth and addressing effectively environment-related threats to health. But achieving these goals requires far more local and regional participation from the development of policy through to its implementation and review. The CoRs opinion suggests ways to further engage local and regional authorities pointing to the Technical Platform for Cooperation on the environment launched by the Committee of the Regions and the European Commission last year. The platform facilitates dialogue and offers a channel to exchange of information to improve the 7EAP application on the ground.

However, engagement isn’t enough and the CoR argues that funding must be provided through the next Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) with clear funding channels made available from the Common Agricultural Policy, the Common Fisheries Policy, Horizon 2020 and cohesion policy. The Committee calls for at least 20% of the 2014-2020 EU budget to be dedicated to delivering the 7EAP with at least 25% dedicated to reporting and reviewing its implementation.

The CoR welcomes the inclusion of a "priority objective" on the sustainability of cities among the objectives of the 7th EAP and calls for minimum sustainability criteria to be fulfilled by a majority of cities in the EU. There should be greater international cooperation aimed at making the world economy an inclusive green economy, fostering an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future for our planet and for current and future generations.

The 7th EAP should also be based on the fundamental principles of environmental law -the polluter pays principle, the precautionary principle, the preventive principle and the rectification at source principle and calls to provide the appropriate framework for guaranteeing sufficient funding, in particular for innovation, research and development, through the mobilisation of market instruments and payments for ecosystem services.