Strategy for integrating the environment into industry

1) OBJECTIVE

To extend the strategy for integrating environment policy into Union policies in the industrial sector.

2) COMMUNITY MEASURES

Conclusions of the Council of 29 April 1999 on integrating environment and sustainable development into the industry policy of the EU.

3) CONTENTS

At its summit meeting in Cardiff the European Council called on all relevant formations of the Council to establish their own strategies for giving effect to the general principle of integrating environment policy into all other Union policies. In Cardiff the focus was mainly on energy, transport and agriculture.

Continuing along the same lines, in Vienna the European Council extended this process to three other fields, including industry.

The relationship between industrial competitiveness and environmental protection was the subject of a resolution of the Industry Council of 3 December 1992, in which the Council undertook to integrate environmental objectives into industrial policy.

Furthermore, the conclusions of the Industry Council of 24 April 1997 highlighted the importance of the industrial sector for issues having an impact on competitiveness and the need to help to contribute to the rapid definition of policies affecting the structural environment of companies.

The Council considers that the industrial sector has made considerable progress in environmental protection, by implementing environmental management and audit systems and new strategies and objectives (introducing the concept of eco-efficiency, for example).

In its Conclusions, the Council emphasises the importance of:

• introducing sustainable patterns of production and consumption: to achieve these, it is necessary to promote responsible entrepreneurship, increase the awareness of industry and encourage changes in the behaviour of consumers;
• improving cooperation and the exchange of information between the relevant formations of the Council, to put into place policies and measures aimed at sustainable development;
• developing and strengthening assessments of the impact which the main proposals would have on the environment, as well as assessments of their impact on the competitiveness of European industry and on employment.

The Council undertakes to do further work with a view to submitting a detailed report to the Helsinki European Council in December 1999, and calls on the Commission to present elements of an integration strategy with that European Council in mind.