Environment - LIFE : LIFE Features

Environment - LIFE : LIFE Features

(...) Best LIFE Environment Projects 2009-2010 – good for the environment, for growth and jobs.

Following an initial review carried out by its external monitoring team (the Astrale consortium), the European Commission selected the most outstanding LIFE Environment projects completed during 2009. The Member States then reviewed these projects using criteria focusing on their environmental benefit, long-term sustainability, transferability and innovation aspects.

This rigorous selection process resulted in the top five projects from diverse sectors including: wastewater treatment, the production of biogas, technology in cold storage, steel production and the introduction of environmentally friendly technologies for rural development.

Mr Martin praised all the 23 winning projects and their partners for their “excellent work” in favour of the environment. He noted that resource efficiency, water efficiency and the management of waste and water are all themes that feature strongly among this year’s selection and confirmed that these will continue to be, priorities for LIFE+ programme co-funding. The concept of resource efficiency is also one of the three main priorities identified by Janez Potočnik’s, the new European Commissioner for the Environment. (The other priorities are biodiversity and the implementation and enforcement of European environmental legislation.)

In conclusion, Mr Martin said that a key challenge for the best LIFE Environment projects was now to build on this success and to transfer this knowledge to other sectors across the EU.(...)
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LIFE building up Europe’s green infrastructure - April 2010 - 60 pages
Habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation have been by far the biggest drivers of terrestrial biodiversity loss at EU level over the past 50 years.
This is a result of the massive expansion of urban zones and transport infrastructures, which have been cutting up Europe’s landscape. LIFE Nature and, to a certain extent, LIFE Environment, have already made a contribution to developing Europe’s green infrastructure, mainly on a local or regional level.
The challenge now is to assess the substantial knowledge acquired through LIFE-funded projects and to finalise the concept of the green infrastructure strategy. The good practices and innovative solutions introduced by LIFE projects – as highlighted in this brochure – are demonstrating how such a green infrastructure can be best supported and built up in the future.