Eu: Commission works on a review of the 2001 environmental guidelines

The European Commission is undertaking a review of the 2001 environmental mainstreaming guidelines, in response to the Court of Auditors report which showed many shortcomings of the previous strategy.

Up to now, an issues paper has been put together (see attached), which is now being commented upon by a few EU based NGOs (FERN, Birdlife, WWF). The Commission aims to have processes
in place by the beginning of next year.

Points of interests are that:
1) the EU guidelines might become applicable to all member states, including for DFID, although it is not clear whether this will actually happen. DFID indicated that they are keen to ensure coordination between member states.
2) The issue paper goes beyond a mere environmental risk assessment, and includes both two other pillars: vertical funding for environmental projects as well as focus on policy coherence for sustainable
development.

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