EU Action Plan released to boost Environmental Technologies

Publication date: 28 January 2004

The European Commission adopted today its Environmental Technologies Action Plan (COM(2004) 38 final), an ambitious plan to further environmental technologies within the EU and globally. It seeks to exploit their potential to improve both the environment and competitiveness, thus contributing to growth and possibly creating jobs.

com2004_38_etap.pdf (133 KB)

The Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP) sets out a number of actions that the Commission will take and some that other stakeholders, such as industry and national and regional governments, should undertake for the plan to be successful. Among the key actions are the launch of technology platforms with stakeholders (in areas such as hydrogen and fuel cells) and establishing environmental performance targets for products (e.g. CO2 emissions for cars).

Next steps:
The Commission will begin implementing this Action Plan immediately. The Spring Council in March 2004 will also discuss this Communication. The Commission will review the implementation of this Action Plan and report on it for the first time in 2006. It will also establish a European Panel on Environmental Technologies to bring together the different European stakeholders in this Action Plan. The Member States should be closely involved in exchanging information on best practice, establishing indicators for measuring progress and peer review and establishing guidelines and timetables for the Action Plan.