At the end of last year, the European Council and the European Parliament signed the European Union's new, 7th Environment Action Programme, which will come into effect in January; the Programme determines the EUs main environment and climate objectives until 2020. The adoption of the programme was preceded by a long process of negotiations between member states, the Council and the European Parliament.

The European Union's 7th Environment Action Programme, which is entitled "Living well, within the limits of our planet", is built around nine priority objectives.

The first three objectives set out thematic priorities: the protection, preservation and development of the EUs natural assets, the establishment of a resource-efficient, green and competitive EU economy, and the protection of EU citizens from environment-related burdens and risks that endanger their health and welfare.

The next four objectives describe a framework system to support the realisation of the abovementioned priorities. These are: the fullest possible exploitation of the advantages of EU environmental regulations and the improvement of implementations, increasing the knowledge and scientific base of EU environmental policy, providing the conditions required for investment projects relating to environmental and climate policy and the management of environmental externals, and the integration of environmental protection into sectoral policy.

The final two objectives assure the meeting of local, regional and global challenges. These are improving the sustainability of cities within the European Union and the more efficient EU handling of challenges related to the international environment and climate. In addition to describing the current state of affairs, the objective also determines tasks and instruments for the each area.

The new Programme relies on the EU forty years of past experience in environmental policy and on the currently valid strategic initiatives such as the Resource Efficiency Roadmap, the EU Biodiversity Strategy until 2020 and the schedule for achieving a low carbon dioxide emission, competitive economy by 2050. The new Programme provides a common ground for EU institutions, member states, region and local public administration and social and private sector operators with relation to environmental protection tasks until 2020.

(Press Office of the Ministry of Rural Development)