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Environmental Dimension of the Lisbon Strategy and Europe 2020

This paper gives an overview of EU environmental policy development and presents the main environmental challenges for the new decade in the light of the Lisbon Strategy and its successor, the Europe 2020 strategy. Greater ecological concerns, present in the EU from the 1970s, have led to the creation of the most progressive environmental policy in the world. Since the 1970s, the EU has developed six Environmental Action Programmes (EAPs) that have formed a framework for EU environmental policy. The ongoing Sixth EAP served as the basis for expanding the Lisbon Strategy with its environmental dimension. While, at the beginning, economic and social dimensions were the main focus of the strategy, it was later recognized that the EU’s sustainable growth can only be achieved with respect for the environment. Thus, the environmental dimension became a constituent part not only of the Lisbon Strategy but also of its successor, the Europe 2020 strategy. Due to the current severe economic crisis in Europe and after some clear environmental failures of the Lisbon Strategy, the expectations of the new Europe 2020 strategy are high. A part of the paper is also focused on the EU 2004 and 2007 enlargements (EU- 12), which imposed new challenges for EU environmental policy, in accordance with the Lisbon Strategy. Thanks to significant efforts in their accession process, the environmental state of the EU-12 has significantly improved. However, the environment is one of the most extensive and financially most demanding chapters of the EU acquis, so the process of full environmental compliance is not over yet. In the forthcoming period, the countries mentioned will have to deal with more stringent implementation of the EU transposed environmental legislation, based on the partnership of all the stakeholders. The last part of the paper deals with the environmental policy in Croatia, as a future EU member state from South-eastern Europe. On its path towards the EU, Croatia has had the privilege of learning from countries from the previous EU enlargements and in this way it can speed up its accession process.

environmental policy, Lisbon Strategy, Europe 2020, environmental action programmes, EU enlargement, air quality, water policy, waste management, environmental protection in Croatia

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