Commission looks at ways to help countries realise the health and economic benefits of fully applying the EU’s environmental laws.

As a first step, the Commission has asked national governments and the European Parliament their views on how to better deliver the benefits of EU environment measures . Their responses will feed into specific proposals, expected later this year.

The proposals will address the need to collect more information about how EU laws work in practice and to speed up governments’ responses to environmental problems. They will likely include:

increasing the amount of environmental information available online – especially on how laws are being applied locally

improving inspections and monitoring to ensure laws are applied correctly

making it easier to submit complaints about environmental problems to national authorities

developing a common approach to environmental challenges in national courts – benefiting people, authorities and businesses

helping EU governments focus their resources on tackling environmental problems.

In a recent survey on European citizens' attitudes towards the environment , 3 out of 4 respondents said that the state of the environment had an impact on their quality of life.