Press Release: Environment: Commission proposes to improve implementation of environmental law

The Commission set out plans to improve the implementation of the European Union's 200 or so laws on environmental protection. This fitted within a wider Commission strategy for improving implementation of EU law announced in 2007, and coincides with the publication of the new Annual Report of the Commission on monitoring the application of Community Law in general. The Communication stressed the need for close cooperation with Member States to ensure that national implementing rules are correct and adopted on time, and that shared goals are effectively achieved. Where serious problems persist – such as tolerance of illegal landfills or multiple failures to treat urban waste-water – the Commission will favour strategic legal action over a piecemeal approach.