Commission adopts new action plan for the implementation of environment strategy and policies
The European Commission has adopted a major action plan designed to speed up the process of environmental improvement, and the move towards sustainable economic and social development in the European Union. The plan identifies five priority areas in which Community action needs to be stepped up. These priority areas include: - Improved integration of environmental issues into other policy areas such as agriculture, transport, energy, industry and tourism; - Use of a wider range of policy instruments, including market-based or horizontal instruments; - Improvement and simplification of legislation as a means of increasing implementation and enforcement; - Intensification of communication and information activities in order to raise public awareness; - Reinforcement of the Union's role at an international level. The action plan is based on the conclusions of the progress report on the implementation of the European Community's Fifth Environmental Action programme (COM(95)624) and on the updated "State of the Environment" report published by the European Environment Agency in November 1995. It's aim is to set out a realistic, pragmatic approach to priority actions which can be achieved in the lifetime of the present Commission.