Environment and sustainable management of natural resources, including energy

The Commission is proposing a programme of measures for the environment and the sustainable management of resources which could be financed by the Community and implemented as part of the European Union's external policy.

ACT

Commission Communication of 25 January 2006, entitled: "External action: Thematic programme for environment and sustainable management of natural resources including energy" [COM(2006) 20 final - Not published in the Official Journal].

SUMMARY

The Commission is proposing a thematic programme for the environment and the sustainable management of natural resources, for which it defines the scope, objectives and priorities.

This thematic programme covers measures which concern mainly the ecological dimension of development policy and the other external policies, and which also seek to promote the environmental and energy policies of the European Union (EU) elsewhere in the world. These measures will be financed through the new instruments defined under the financial perspective 2007-13.

The programme is intended to supplement measures in the field of the environment and natural resources (including energy) under national and regional programmes. It includes the opportunity to give priority to measures regarded as world priorities, to cover all the partner countries (except the pre-accession and potentially candidate countries) and to retain some flexibility as regards programming and partnerships.

The programme priorities are:

• working to achieve Millennium Development Goal 7 (Ensure Environmental Sustainability), principally by building capacity to integrate the environment in developing countries, support civil society actors, monitoring and evaluation and the preparation of innovative solutions;
• promoting implementation of EU initiatives and commitments at international level, including in the areas of sustainable development, climate change, biodiversity, desertification, forests and their governance, marine resources, waste and chemical products, etc.;
• improving the integration by the EU of environmental questions, particularly as regards combating poverty, by expanding the EU's responsibilities and through cooperation and specialist aid;
• improving international governance as regards the environment and the EU's driving role, particularly by assisting regional and international environmental monitoring and assessment, aid for implementing multilateral agreements on the environment, and support for international organisations and processes concerned with the environment and energy;
• promoting options for renewable energy, particularly through institutional support and technical assistance, the creation of a legislative and administrative framework propitious for investment and business and encouragement for regional cooperation.

Context

This programme is one of a series of seven thematic programmes in the areas of: human rights and democracy, investment in human resources, the environment and sustainable management of natural resources (including energy), food safety, the participation of non-State actors in the development process, migration and asylum, and cooperation with the industrialised countries.

Along with Community, national and regional programmes, these new programmes will constitute the backbone of the Commission's work on external cooperation after 2007.

RELATED ACTS

Commission Communication of 3 August 2005, entitled: "External actions through thematic programmes under the future financial perspectives 2007-2013" [COM(2005) 324 final - Official Journal C 236, 24 September 2005].

Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee of 12 April 2005: Speeding up progress towards the Millennium Development Goals: The European Union's contribution - [COM(2005) 132 final - Not published in the Official Journal].

Last updated: 09.05.2006