The EU bank

In the latest EU Treaty - re-affirmed in the recent Constitution - the preamble and Article 2 (B) make the principle of sustainable development one of the EU's main objectives. It stipulates under the revised Article 130r 2 that environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the definition and implementation of other Community policies, that has come to be known as the "Cardiff Process"; "environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the definition and implementation of the Community policies in particular with a view of promoting sustainable development" (Article 6). It also introduces the precautionary principle, which includes the requirement that protective measures be developed before specific environmental hazards are evident, and that the burden of proof that environmental damage will not occur should be placed on the polluter; this approach, for instance, underpins the EU leadership role adopted towards climate change issues during a period of scientific uncertainty.

Article 174 (1) thus restates the objectives of the EU environment policy:

• Preserving, protecting and improving the quality of the environment
• Protecting human health
• Prudent and rational use of natural resources
• Promoting measures at international level to deal with regional and world wide environmental problems

Article 174 (2) lays down the guiding principles upon which environmental action must be based:

• High level of protection principle (taking account of regional variations across the Community)
• Precautionary principle
• The polluter pays principle
• Principle of prevention rather than remediation
• The proximity principle
• The integration principle

The Action Programmes provide the framework for the secondary legislation often containing specific standards, to support these primary overarching objectives and principles¹.

[¹] EU law is composed of three different but closely linked, types of legislation - primary and secondary legislation and case law. Community law can then take the form of regulations, directives, decisions, and recommendations and opinions.