Today, European Union environmental policy is based on the idea that high environmental standards stimulate innovation and business opportunities.

All policy is based on the “polluter pays” principle. The polluter may “pay” either through investment in higher standards or as a tax on business or consumers for using an environmentally hazardous product. Payment may also involve the requirement to take back, recycle or dispose of products after use.

The Union’s environment action programmes, launched in 1972, have helped integrate ecological and environmental aspects into all areas of Community policy. The sixth programme – ‘Environment 2010: Our Future, Our Choice’ running from 2002 to 2012 - focuses on four priority areas:

• Tackling climate change and global warming
• Protecting natural habitat and wildlife
• Addressing environmental and health issues
• Preserving natural resources and managing waste.

A long-awaited compromise on the REACH - the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemicals - was adopted in December 2006, to come into force in June 2007.

The REACH package requires the manufacturers and importers of chemicals to provide health, environmental and safe use data for some 30 000 chemical substances currently used in everyday products. These include a wide range from plastics used in toys, mobile phones and household articles to chemicals used in cleaning products, paints, textiles, and in various industrial processes.

All substances must be registered over a period of 11 years at the new European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki. The agency will coordinate the in-depth evaluation of registered chemicals and run a public database in which consumers and professionals can find information. The work will begin with chemicals used with highest volumes and/or risks. If a safer substance is available, the more risky one must be replaced. The responsibility for proving that their products are safe rests with the manufacturers.

In the European Union, some 1.3 billion tons of waste is generated every year. Some 40 million tons of this are dangerous substances. Every EU citizen produces on an average over 500 kilos of waste per year, but less than a third of municipal waste is recycled and almost half goes to landfill sites.

In December 2005, the European Commission presented its Thematic Strategy on Waste Prevention and Recycling, a new approach to waste management that takes into account the whole life-cycle of each product. The goal is to cut waste generation and boost recycling and recovery by creating a market for recycled materials.

The European Commission estimates that air pollution from ultra fine dust particles and ozone caused 370 000 deaths in the EU in the year 2000. In 2005, the Commission presented its Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution – which it hopes will reduce the number of air pollution deaths to 230 000 by 2020.

The cost of the strategy is estimated to be €7.1 billion annually until 2020. However, the Commission’s Environment DG estimates that the related health benefits, including a drop in premature deaths, fewer sick days and improved labour productivity, as well as lower hospital admissions, would be worth at least €42 billion per year.

The related new Ambient Air Quality Directive entered into force in June 2008. Under this new legislation, member states need to cut exposure to fine particles (PM2.5) in urban areas by an average of 1/5 by 2020 based on 2010 levels. Time extensions of three to five years are possible for coarser particles (PM10), nitrogen dioxide and benzene in certain areas.

In September 2010, Commissioner Potočnik issued a raft of communications to countries that had failed to implement environmental directives. Warnings were sent to Athens, Brussels and Prague concerning chemical packaging and labelling, to Bucharest for bird protection, and to Rome for waste management.