A Communication adopted by the European Commission highlights the positive benefits of environment law, showing how preventing damage to the environment can cost far less than long-term remediation. The main objective of this Communication is to help to intensify the dialogue with governments and all other stakeholders on how can work better together to achieve better implementation of EU law.

According to the European Commission, failing to implement environment legislation is thought to cost the EU economy around €50 billion every year in health costs and direct costs to the environment. For this reason, it has published a Communication which intends to achieve better ways to communicate among all the actors involved when applying the environment legislation.

The Communication outlines measures to help Member States achieve a fully systematic approach to knowledge collection and dissemination, including ways to encourage more responsiveness on environmental issues. The Commission stresses that the full implementation of the EU environmental legislation, specifically for instance, the EU waste legislation would generate an additional 400,000 jobs with net costs that are €72 billion less, as it was already reported in January 2012.

In addition, the Commission underlines that monitoring efforts are uneven across Europe because the information generated can be patchy and out-of-date and not enough useful information is placed online. Better and more accessible information at national, regional and local levels would allow major environmental problems to be identified earlier, saving costs in the longer term. The Commission also proposes criteria for how Member States should deal with citizen complaints, more access to justice in environmental matters, and support for European networks of environmental professionals.