Press Release: Further efforts needed to put environment at the heart of EU policy decisions

The European Commission published a report, 'Integrating environmental considerations into other policy areas - a stocktaking of the Cardiff process', on 2 June 2004. The report recognises that the only way to tackle worrying environmental trends, such as climate change, declining fish stocks and emissions of pollutants, and to move towards sustainable development, is to make environmental issues central to the policy decisions in sectors that have significant environmental impacts. Failure to integrate environmental thinking means ongoing costs to society. Some progress has been achieved, for instance in agriculture and fisheries, but a lot remains to be done. The Council needs to re-invigorate the process of environmental integration and deliver on the strategies that already exist.

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/environment/integration/com2004394_en.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/comm/environment/integration/com2004394_en.pdf

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