Evaluation of the integration reports proposed by the Council formations

European environmental policy is mainly based on Article 6 of the Amsterdam Treaty, which reads as follows:

"Environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the definition and implementation of the Community policies and activities (...), in particular with a view to promoting sustainable development"

Following this line of thought, environmental protection is not understood as a sectorial policy, but rather a maxim involving all sectors. This does not render independent environmental ministries superfluous, but rather requires the creation of interfaces in other sectors.
The European heads of state have asked the Council formations Transport, Energy and Agriculture to develop strategies for the implementation of the integration principle. In the presidency conclusions of the Vienna European Summit, this request was extended to the Council formations for Development, Internal Market and Industry. In addition, the formations General Affairs, Economic and Financial Affairs and Fishery were invited to report on their progress in 2000.

The integration process is and remains globally unique and exemplary. However, the declaratory and processual activities should not distract from the fact that the stocktaking by the European Commission and the European Environmental Agency points to a fundamental contradiction between the hopes connected to the process and its implementation.

SERI has analysed the following components of the integration reports proposed by the Council formations Internal Market, Energy and Transport:

SERI has developed practicable policy recommendations for the design of this process in the following years. These recommendations refer to the individual sectors and their specific issues, as well as to the more general, institutional aspects of the process.