8th Environment Action Programme - EU Council adopts conclusions

The Council today adopted conclusions which offer political guidance for the EU's environment and climate change policies for the period 2021 - 2030. It calls upon the Commission to present at the latest by early 2020 an ambitious and focused proposal for an 8th Environment Action Programme (EAP).

For more than 40 years, EAPs have provided the EU with policy frameworks that deliver results and ensure predictable and coordinated action for Europe's environment and climate change policies.

The conclusions build on the EU's strategic agenda adopted by the European Council on 20 June 2019, which insists on the urgent need to build a climate-neutral, green, fair and social Europe.

The Council stresses in its conclusions that climate change, pollution, the loss of biodiversity and the accelerating demands on natural resources are jeopardising current and future generations' wellbeing and prospects. It underlines the need for additional action to protect and restore biodiversity, and for ambitious biodiversity targets in the 8th EAP. It also urges the Commission to present without any further delay a Union strategy for a non-toxic environment that will fully address endocrine disruptors, combination effects of chemicals and nanomaterial issues. The Commission is also invited to come up with a new circular economy action plan and a long-term strategic framework, including a common vision, for a circular economy.

(*) Council conclusions on "The 8th Environment Action Programme - Turning the Trends Together"

(*) Strategic agenda adopted by the European Council on 20 June 2019 (press release)

SOURCE:  www.consilium.europa.eu