Ingmar von Homeyer, Ecologic Institute Senior Fellow and Head of the Ecologic Institute representation in Brussels, provided an assessment of the Thematic Strategies as the most important ‘tool’ of the European Union’s 6th Environment Action Programme (6EAP) at a conference organised by Brussels Environment in the context of the 2010 Belgian EU Presidency.

He concluded that the performance of the seven Thematic Strategies varied significantly. While they did not result in the adoption of quantifiable environmental targets and timetables to achieve these targets, the Thematic Strategies were often accompanied by concrete legislative proposals which extended EU environmental policy to areas in which the EU had previously been relatively inactive and provided a platform for, inter alia, increasing policy coherence and the adoption of additional measures.

The conference "European environment policy: what's next? Towards a genuine 7th Environment Action Programme" aimed to stimulate discussion on the successor of the 6EAP. Participants in the conference included inter alia EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik and several environment ministers from Member States. The presentation by Ingmar von Homeyer was part of the session on "Coherence in EU environmental policies developed under the 6th EAP". It was based on the findings of the independent assessement of the 6EAP, which a consortium led by Ecologic Institute prepared for the European Commission, DG Environment.

The presentation [pdf, 85 KB, English] is available for download.