limate change and global warming; protect natural habitat and wildlife; addressing environment and health issues; preserving natural resources and managing wastes "( Environment ). All policy is based on "Polluter pays" principle (payment can be required through investment or taxation on goods etc.). br/>
As with all other policies the environment policy has to be backed up by the financial support if it want to work properly and achieve the necessary progress. There are several places where the environmental policy can be supported from. Firstly, the Structural fund provided some 1 billion ECU during the period of 1988 to 1993. However taking into an account that environment is a crucial aspect of EU policies this amount of money is negligible for such a period of time. Secondly, Cohesion fund within the EU provided some very small amount of money in 1994, which again made no significant progress in such a crucial issue. Finally, the most important source of funding is currently The Financial Instrument for the Environment (LIFE). However this was not created as to be separate agency financing the EU environmental issues but only as a body that ensures that financial support coming from all different resources is used in a most efficient way so to get the highest possible impact (sustainable development). As we can see here lies one of the main problems of environmental policy which is the lack of financial support for its effective implementation. For the future concern would be to increase of funding from whatever sources if the EU environmental policy is about to be efficient.
One of the most crucial issues concerning environmental policy is to see to what extent it is actually effective. One of the first concerns is the actually there is a lack of commitment among the Member states. More precisely, the most of the legislation was adopted in the form of directives. Directives is the principle were the end result is crucial but the way it is going to be achieved depends on the particular member state. As a consequence the gab has been created between the drafters of the legislation and member states who responsible for putting legislation into practice. Main point is that if particular member state lacks the commitment to particular issue then the effective outcome is uncertain. These cases occurred in countries such as Greece, Ireland, Italy and England. Other main concern in this area is that there has to be legal compliance with legislation. The main idea is that Commission encourages individuals to report infringements of EU directives, therefore Commission will afterwards restore the order. Commission has already taken action against states such as Belgium or Italy for not managing to introduce legislation to put EU's laws into practice. In addition EU has introduced new penalty for states that fail to do so: "If the state concerned fails to take necessary measures ... within the time limit laid down by the Commission, the latter may bring the case before the Court of Justice. In so doing it should specify the amount of lump sum or penalty payment ... If the court of Justice finds that the Member State concerned has not complied with its judgment it may impose a lump sum or penalty payment on it "(Barnes, Barnes 307). Certainly those two factors are of great importance for effectiveness of policy as such but there are other factors, such as sufficient financial support and finding most appropriate means for solution of the problem for each specific area, that are even more important.
The need of agency that would support the enforcement of EU legislation led to creation of the European Environment Agency, based in Copenhagen. The main task of the agency is to provide the state of environment and warn before the problem is about to arise. The agency mainly provides the information on which decision is made by member states; ensures the promotion of best practices for the environmental protection and technologies; helps the Commission in sorting the research results. However the main concern of the European Environment Agency is to support initiators and provide effective enforcement of legislation mainly by providing and spreading information. br/>
There are several market-based instruments proposed by EU that are supposed to force both consumers and producers to behavior that is headed in direction, which is less harmful to the environment. The idea of ​​EU is that by usage of economic and fiscal instruments the true price will be always paid therefore companies won't be able to continue with wasteful practices. One of the first parts of the legislation to deal with such issue was "EU's Eco-management and Audit Scheme Regulation (EMAR). It is based on the introduction of cycle of environmental auditing by a company with the objective of identifying and introducing measures to improve environmental performance ov...
