Subsidiarity monitoring in the area of environment

 

Historically speaking, the environment was the first policy area in the Treaty to embrace the concept of subsidiarity (1987, article 130 r EEC Treaty), which took place even before the principle was explicitly introduced by the Maastricht Treaty (1992).

 

Under the Treaty of Lisbon, this policy has been categorised as a shared competence between the Union and the Member States (Article 4 TFEU).

 

The aim of the European Union's environment policy is to preserve, protect and improve the quality of the environment and to protect people's health. It also sets great store by the prudent and rational use of natural resources. Lastly, it aims to promote measures at international level to address regional or global environmental problems and the Lisbon Treaty stresses the importance of combating climate change on an international level. Environment policy is based on the principles of precaution, prevention and rectification at source and on the principle that "the polluter should pay". Lastly, the Treaty states that the Union's environment policy must take account of the diversity of situations in the various regions of the European Union.

 

Most of the European Union's environment legislation is adopted in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (Article 294 TFEU), after consultation with the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, with the exception of a limited number of areas, including provisions relating to taxation and land use or provisions which significantly affect a Member state's choice between different energy sources and the general structure of its energy supply. In these areas, the Council acts unanimously, after consulting the European Parliament. In such cases, it should be noted that consultation with the advisory bodies is mandatory.

 

It is worth drawing specific attention to the objective of combating climate change. Under the new Treaty, combating climate change on an international level has become a specific objective of EU environmental policy (article 191 TFEU), even though climate change in general is a cross-cutting issue covering not only the field of environment, but other policy areas in the Lisbon Treaty as well, such as transport or energy.

The EU calls for urgent and strong action by the international community to prevent global warming from reaching 2 °C (relative to pre-industrial levels) and to lead global action on climate change, not only by setting out what needs to be done internationally, but also by committing itself to significant cuts in its own GHG emissions.

 

The CoR has given its full political support to the Covenant of Mayors initiative created by the European Commission in 2008 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Signatories to the Covenant contribute to the EU "20-20-20-targets" by making a formal commitment to go beyond theses objectives through the implementation of local sustainable energy action plans. The Covenant also provides mechanisms to facilitate the sharing of know-how and the replication and multiplication of successful measures in the field of climate protection.

 

Click here for more information about the Covenant of Mayors.

 

Further information on the CoR's work in this area

 

See also the website of the Committee of the Regions' Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform (click here), as the "Europe 2020 Strategy", which replaced the "Lisbon Strategy" in June 2010, covers a number of cross-cutting fields which have a direct impact on the areas on which the Committee of the Regions must be consulted.