nciples. The main aim of this policy in the future will be to redistribute costs and responsibilities among major polluters and encourage cooperation between different groups, industries etc. br/>
As was already mentioned the importance of environment and its protection within the EU was introduced for the first time in 1972. The most important thing considering the legal basis of environmental issue was that in 1986 the SEA included a chapter on environmental issue which gave the policy much firmer legal background. The SEA clearly stated main points of environmental issue as follows: preserving, protecting and improving the quality of human life; contribution towards human health and rational use of natural resources. These were to be achieved by the three main principles which include: prevention is better than cure approach; rectification of damage at its source; polluter pays to clean up the damage. What is also important concerning the legal basis is that SEA included requirement that environment should become the common part of EU policies and also introduced the principle of subsidiarity. Another important concept that deserves mention is the sustainable development. The main idea was that in 1987 there was a need to develop environmental policy that would contribute to greater economic growth but with condition to be coupled with effective protection of the environment. The idea of ​​sustainable development was introduced in 1987 "Bruntland Report, Our common future "(Barnes, Barnes 295). There was presented the idea that it is possible to achieve economic growth with the effective protection of environment. This created the principle of sustainable development which was supported in 1992 in Rio summit and is common phenomenon now days.
One good aspect to realize is how the economic prosperity and growth are connected to the environment issue. Here we can emphasize several main concepts. Firstly, it is argued economic benefits heading towards removal of trade barriers have a negative impact when it comes to an environment. The idea is that only at zero economic growth there is no negative impact on the environment. Secondly, there has to be ability of EU to intervene and harmonize definitions an standards in areas where differences might cause distortion to barriers to trade. If the state keeps the low standards compared to others where the standard is higher than they practice unfair advantage over these states. Simply speaking, if the low standards are cause of ignorance towards an environmental damage the product prices in such a country could be lower therefore giving companies unfair advantage on the Single Market. This is where the EU ought to intervene. Thirdly, there has to be some measure at EU level concerning environment in order to achieve effective implementation of legislation. Finally, there has to be potential for creation of eco-industries as well as development of new technologies that will promote more competition within the EU environmental industries and relationships.
The main concern is to see what is the great importance of the environmental policy and how it's effective application can be achieved in reality. As was already said the EU environmental policy was started in 1972 during the Summit conference of Heads of the States in Paris. At the same time was launched the First Environmental Action Program to meet those main criteria. The criteria that emphasize why we need the environmental policy are the following: "prevent, reduce and eliminate pollution; maintain satisfactory ecological balance and protect the biosphere; avoid damage to ecological balance; to ensure that more account is taken of environmental aspects in town planning and land use; to work for those ends with non-member states of the EU " (Barnes, Barnes 301). The Second Environmental Action Program created more proactive approach in the environment, meaning that it looked for specific resources for the prevention of the pollution. The Third Environment Action Program emphasized mainly on the prevention rather than cure principle. Fourth Environmental Action Program as adopted at the same time as was the Single Market program, therefore representing clear linkage of economic and environmental issues. The economy should not undermine the protection of environment. Fifth Environmental Action Program was created mainly for better approach towards environmental management. The emphasis was put mainly on research and monitoring of environmental problems. This encouraged many states to use several tools (taxes, market-based instruments) to protect the environment. What is also important, the program established EU Financial Instrument for the Environment (LIFE). Most important is the last or the Six Environmental Action Program (until 2010). The main principles are: "Tackling c...
