The revision clause of the Eighth Environmental Action Programme (8th EAP) is at the heart of a new compromise of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council for conclusions on this EAP, which is supposed to provide the EU and its Member States with a framework for monitoring EU environmental policy up to 2030.
This compromise, dated 5 February and submitted to the experts of the Environment Working Group on Wednesday 10 February, underlines that exceptionally, the 8th EAP does not contain specific actions, since the European Green Deal contains a roadmap of relevant key actions in the field of the environment until 2025.
However, there is expected to be a mid-term review in 2024, followed by a legislative proposal amending the 8th EAP in order to complete it with key actions up to 2030. Such a review should take into account the main conclusions of the European Environment Agency's report on the state of the environment, says the text as seen by EUROPE.
Two options are being considered:
1) specify in Article 4a (mid-term review) that the Commission will present, by 31 March 2025 at the latest, a legislative proposal amending the 8th EAP for the period post-2025 by establishing a list of actions necessary to achieve the priority thematic objectives set out in Article 2(2) and the respective timetable for these actions.
2) indicate in Article 1 that a reference to the actions envisaged in the European Green Deal is set out, for information purposes only, in Annex I. And specify in Article 4a that the Commission will present, by 31 March 2025 at the latest, a legislative proposal to add to the 8th EAP an Annex II containing the list of further actions to be taken after 2025 necessary to achieve the priority objectives set out in Article 2(2) and the respective timetable for these actions. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)