“Estonia supports the principle that instead of establishing new supplementary restrictions or norms one should focus on completing and controlling the already existing ones. There is a sufficient amount of environmental norms and requirements both on the European Union and national level; it is important that they are also fulfilled in reality. In the near future, focus has to be exactly on that. For example, with reference to protected areas an aim in itself cannot be creating them more but a proper and efficient ensuring of protection,” explained the Minister of the Environment Keit Pentus. According to her, about 18% of land and 45% of sea area are under protection in Estonia. With regard to the European Environmental Action Programme, Estonia also considers important the availability and easy traceability of environment-concerning information. In the next European Union environmental action plan, attention is also directed towards urban environment. “Air quality, noise, innovative solutions, for instance, in the field of illumination, transport and urban planning are important not only for Estonia but are in the focus in the entire European Union,” talked Keit Pentus at the public discussion held today. The European Environmental Action Programme to be compiled is the only strategic document on the European level comprising all environmental documents and pursuant to this, one plans to update also Estonian environmental strategy and environmental action plan. The European Commission has compiled environmental action programmes since the beginning of the 1970s. Through these, legislative proposals were made to European Union environmental policy and discussions on environmental policy’s broader perspective and priorities were initiated. The last, i.e. 6th action programme was accepted in the year 2002 and its validity ends this July. A public consultation on the new action programme lasts from March 12 to June 1, and the Commission waits for proposals and opinions on the strategic directions of environmental policy up to the year 2020 from all the citizens and organizations of EU countries. |
