Action plan faces the winds of change

The European Commission is preparing to publish a review of its central environmental work plan: the sixth community environment action programme (6EAP). This mid-term review is likely to report mixed progress towards targets set in 2002, with some reached more quickly than expected, some missed altogether, and some overtaken by new priorities.

Publication is expected in the coming weeks.

The 6EAP put particular emphasis on the link between human health and the environment, in particular when it comes to chemical exposure. A year after the action programme was agreed, the Commission proposed to overhaul EU chemicals policy through the REACH regulation. REACH finally won national backing last December and a new agency has started work in Helsinki to oversee the registration of EU chemicals, phasing out hundreds that pose an environmental or health risk.

The 6EAP was also one of the first places the EU officially supported using the market - and in particular taxation - to meet environmental goals: a practice now raising interest from figures including the French government and European Enterprise Commissioner Günter Verheugen. A 2002 6EAP promise to bring out a "timely and appropriate Community framework for energy taxation" was followed through last month with the green paper on using market measures to achieve environmental and energy goals.

Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, meanwhile, has more than answered the 6EAP call for the promotion of energy efficiency. The Latvian commissioner has publishing an energy efficiency discussion paper and action plan since joining the Commission in 2004, and ensured this priority got a mention in January’s wide-ranging EU energy strategy package.

When it comes to renewable energy, the EU has both hit and missed its 6EAP goals. The action programme reiterates a commitment to Europe getting 10% of its energy from renewable sources by 2010. The Commission now openly admits this target is all but out of the question, but governments last months agreed to aim even higher, adopting a 20%-by-2020 target for renewables.

Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has put forward proposals to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the passenger car and aviation sectors, although like the tax, efficiency and renewables developments, these still have to be turned into concrete action. A 6EAP deadline for developing EU rules on ship emissions, unless an international agreement can be reached, has moved from the end of 2003 to the end of this year.

The most high-profile disappointment concerns the action programme’s main central policy commitment. The 6EAP was built around the need for ‘thematic strategies’ on soil, air, urban and marine pollution, waste, pesticides, and resources use.

The Commission was widely criticised for not getting all seven strategies out until last year, rather than 2005 or earlier as promised in the action programme. When they did emerge, the thematic strategies failed to raise much environmental enthusiasm.

But environmental disappointment with the 6EAP does not translate into fear that environmentalism has passed its sell-by date. Overall, the action programme has declined in importance since 2002 as green concerns have risen up the political agenda.

Tony Long, director of green group WWF, says the need for a specific strategy dealing with environmental problems is less urgent now that climate change and pollution are linked to everything from budgetary negotiations to transport policy.

The first environment action plan was agreed in 1973. "You can see the whole history of the environmental movement in those plans," says Long.

But even the 6EAP could not foresee the "seismic shift" in EU priorities started by developments such as the Stern report on climate change, says Long. The action programmes might even have outlived their value.

"I don’t know what the value of reviewing 6EAP priorities - or even developing 7EAP - would be. The idea of integrating environment into everything else has now gone beyond words."

Folker Franz from industry group Business Europe said it was time for a new approach. "We are facing a somewhat new situation after the spring summit meeting," he said, "in that climate change has now taken on such huge importance."

"All the different policies being adopted to deal with the challenge are, from an industry point of view, rather piecemeal," he said. "A new, more coherent approach would be very much appreciated. I don’t think the environment action programmes would offer that."

The European Commission is preparing to publish a review of its central environmental work plan: the sixth community environment action programme (6EAP). This mid-term review is likely to report mixed progress towards targets set in 2002, with some reached more quickly than expected, some missed altogether, and some overtaken by new priorities.