09/06/2005 - The past
decades saw important strategic developments
to promote the integration of environmental
concerns into other policies in order to
support sustainable development. There is
however much scope to reinforce implementation
and to improve evaluation and policy learning.
This according to a new technical report
- Environmental policy integration in Europe:
state of play and an evaluation framework
- released by the EEA.
The integration of environmental concerns
in sector and other policy areas emerged
as a key element of EU environmental policy
as early as 1973. Environmental policy integration
has since been elevated to the Community
Treaty. It is reflected in the Göteborg
EU sustainable development strategy and
the 6th environmental action programme.
In its latest report, the EEA reflects
on passed efforts at the national and EU
levels, to promote environmental policy
integration in order to help achieve sustainable
development in Europe. The report, developed
with support from the Institute for European
Environmental Policy, takes stock of recent
developments and outlines some of the opportunities
and challenges lying ahead.
In terms of policy, the EEA report points
to a growing range of instruments being
employed at EU and country level. Apart
from environmental standards, funding programmes,
spatial planning and research programmes,
there is also a gradual move towards environmental
taxes, environmental tax reform and other
market-based approaches that seek to 'get
the prices right'. Various forms of impact
assessments have also been established,
which are opening up and informing decision-making
processes.
However, much remains to be done. Improving
coordination within and between different
levels of governance warrants further attention,
including ensuring there is sufficient capacity
dedicated to environmental mainstreaming
efforts. There is much scope to use regular
government planning, budgeting and auditing
exercises to push forward environmental
and sustainable development objectives,
be it at EU or national level. In the area
of budgeting, good practice cases are emerging
in Norwegian, Dutch and UK policy. Harnessing
the EU's funding instruments has been particularly
important, with funds increasingly diverted
to environmental objectives, and subjected
to environmental criteria,including cross-compliance
mechanisms. How to monitor and learn from
experience, particularly in terms of budgeting,
remains a key question however.
A particular gap from the EEA's perspective
is the lack of a consistent evaluation and
information framework. Although the EU's
annual Spring Summits were to review progress,
in practice environmental issues have been
treated as secondary to the core issues
of growth and competitiveness.
To fill this monitoring gap, the EEA proposes
a new common evaluation framework for environmental
integration. The framework singles out six
ingredients for success: political commitment,
vision and leadership; administrative culture
and practices; assessments and information
for decision-making; policy instruments;
monitoring progress; and the environmental
context of EPI. With this framework the
EEA aims to facilitate future evaluation
efforts at national or at EU level.
