The European Commission has put forward a proposal to guide the European Union's environmental policy through 2020. Protect nature and strengthen the ecological balance, encourage sustainable, low-carbon, resource-efficient growth and effectively address related health threats with the environment are the main objectives of the document.
The proposal advocates phasing out environmentally harmful subsidies, shifting tax pressure from labor to pollution, drawing up partnership agreements between the Member States and the Commission on the application of EU environmental legislation and the development of a system for tracking environment-related expenditure in the EU budget.
The Commission also wants to help EU cities become more sustainable and improve the EU's ability to tackle regional and global environmental and climate challenges.
The European Commission has recently approved 235 new sites proposed by Member States for recognition as 'Sites of Community Importance' through the Natura 2000 programme.
Comments