Environmental compliance assurance : EU action plan

The European Union has put in place rules - legal do's and don'ts - to provide us all with environmental benefits that include clean water, breathable air and a healthy nature. These rules need to be followed by businesses and others, otherwise society will suffer through increased health-care costs, lost government revenues and unfair business competition. The Commission has adopted a 9-point Action Plan to help public authorities promote, monitor and enforce compliance with them. Promote means helping businesses and others to do the right thing; Monitor means using inspections and other checks to collect information about levels of compliance and provide solid evidence for enforcement; Enforce means stopping those who disregard the rules, sanctioning them and obliging them to rectify the damage. This work of public authorities is known as environmental compliance assurance.