Environment: 6th Community action programme 2001-2010

The Council held an orientation debate on the sixth Environmental Action Programme. The issues addressed by the Ministers in this first debate focused on the choice of priority areas, the setting of objectives and targets, the need for timetables and for indicators to monitor progress, the instruments for implementing the programme, the link with the Community's (Cardiff) process of integrating environmental concerns into other policies and the relationship with the strategy on sustainable development to be adopted at the Gothenburg European Council in June 2001. The President concluded the debate by summarising the main points. According to the President, there was in particular: - broad support for the four priority areas as proposed by the Commission; some delegations stressing the importance of tackling urban environment, sustainable transport and eco-efficiency; - the general wish to strengthen the Environmental Action Programme by considering more concrete objectives and possible timetables; - the feeling that the process of integrating environmental concerns into sectoral policy should be further highlighted for the purpose of greater political coherence; - the need to develop indicators in order to ensure an effective monitoring of the Programme; - the desire to better emphasise the enlargement perspective in the Programme, given its 10-year timescale.�