Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV) is a

Directorate-General Within the European Union, Directorates-General are departments with specific zones of responsibility, the equivalent of ministries at a national level. Most are headed by a European Commissioner, responsible for the general direction of the Dir ...

of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

, responsible for the

Environmental policy of the European Union The European Union (EU) Environmental Policy was initiated in 1973 with the "Environmental Action Programme" at which point the Environmental Unit was formed (named Directorate General for the Environment in 1981). The policy has thereafter e ...

. In 2010 "relevant limate changeactivities in DG Environment" were moved to the new DG Climate Action (DG CLIMA). At the same time the DG Energy (ENER) was also established. The 2022 commissioner was Virginijus Sinkevičius.

Mission

The DG's main role is to initiate and define new environmental legislation and to ensure that measures, which have been agreed, are actually put into practice in the member states of the European Union. The overall mission statement for 2005 is: "Protecting, preserving and improving the environment for present and

future generations Future generations are cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations, and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity. The moral patienthood of future ge ...

, and promoting sustainable development". The mission statement is divided into the following sub-statements: * To maintain and improve the quality of life through a high level of protection of our

natural resources Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. O ...

, effective

risk assessment Broadly speaking, a risk assessment is the combined effort of: # identifying and analyzing potential (future) events that may negatively impact individuals, assets, and/or the environment (i.e. hazard analysis); and # making judgments "on the to ...

and management and the timely implementation of Community legislation. * To foster

resource efficiency Resource efficiency is the maximising of the supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively, with minimum wasted (natural) resource expenses. It means using the ...

in production, consumption and waste-disposal measures. * To integrate environmental concerns into other EU policy areas. * To promote growth in the EU that takes account of the economic, social and environmental needs both of our citizens and of future generations. * To address the global challenges facing us notably combating climate change and the international conservation of

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

. * To ensure that all policies and measures in the above areas are based on a multi-sectoral approach, involve all stakeholders in the process and are communicated in an effective way.

Structure

The DG Environment is based in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

and organised into an Office of the Director-General, Deputy Director-General and 6 directorates: * A: Policy, Coordination and Resources * B: Circular Economy and Green Growth * C: Quality of Life * D: Natural Capital * E: Implementation and Support to Member States * F: Global Sustainable Development

History

EU environmental policy The European Union (EU) Environmental Policy was initiated in 1973 with the "Environmental Action Programme" at which point the Environmental Unit was formed (named Directorate General for the Environment in 1981). The policy has thereafter e ...

started as a collection of disparate laws which had no specific Treaty basis. There was no department dedicated to environmental issues for the first 15 years of the European Commission's existence. In 1973 the Environmental Unit was created within DG Industry and in 1981 the Environment Directorate-General (DG) was established.Schön-Quinlivan (2012) The European Commission, In: Jordan, A.J. and Adelle, C. (eds) Environmental Policy in the European Union: Contexts, Actors and Policy Dynamics (3e). Earthscan: London and Sterling, VA. However, it remained a relatively weak DG in the Commissioner for several years due to lack of institutional experience and human resources; 5 officials in 1973 had grown to 60 officials in the 1980s. In its early years, DG Environment hired specialists with technical knowledge who had a different culture to the other Commission's officials. This ‘gave ta reputation for being dominated by ��“ecological freaks”'. Over time DG Environment matured and settled into the Commission's ways of working. In particular by taking politics more into consideration when formulating legislation so that it could be adopted and better implemented. The Fifth Environmental Action Programme which came into force on 1 January 1993 marked a change in DG Environment's approach to policy-making. It attempted to present the DG and its policies in a more contemporary and constructive light. The programme demonstrated that legislation was no longer to be made solely behind closed doors, but together with all social and economic partners.Tanasescu, I. (2012) In: Jordan, A.J. and Adelle, C. (eds) Environmental Policy in the European Union: Contexts, Actors and Policy Dynamics (3e). Earthscan: London and Sterling, VA. In November 2016 the EC harmonised the names of all DGs to make them more consistent and dropped "the" from the name, changing from "Directorate-General for the Environment" to "Directorate-General for Environment".

Resources

The Directorate-General for Environment has a staff of about 650

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

s. *

Commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...

: Virginijus Sinkevičius *

Director General A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive (government), executive officer, often the chief executive offi ...

Florika Fink-Hooijer Florika Fink-Hooijer is a European civil servant at the European Commission. She leads the Directorate General for the Environment, which holds large responsibilities under the European Green Deal. She joined the European Commission in 1990 a ...

Past commissioners: *

Karmenu Vella Karmenu Vella is a Maltese politician and former member of the European Commission, in charge of Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries between 2014 and 2019. He has been one of the longest serving Maltese Parliamentarian with the Maltese ...

, 2014-2019 *

Janez Potočnik Janez Potočnik (pronounced ; born 22 March 1958) is a Slovenian politician who served as European Commissioner for Environment from 2009 until 2014. He was formerly Slovenia's Minister for European Affairs. In November 2014, he became co-chair ...

, 2009-2014 * Stavros Dimas, 2004-2009 *

Margot Wallström Margot Elisabeth Wallström (; born 28 September 1954) is a Swedish politician of the Swedish Social Democratic Party who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden and Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2019 and Minister for Nordic Cooper ...

, 1999–2004

References

External links

Directorate General for the Environment
and
SMILE project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Directorate-General For The Environment (European Commission)