The EU has several strategies to protect the environment, including designating over 26,000 protected natural areas across Europe. While aiming to conserve biodiversity, these areas allow sustainable human activities. The EU also sets standards and targets for issues like air and water quality, promotes more sustainable consumption, and funds environmental projects through its LIFE Programme. Additionally, the EU works with Asian countries on key problems through cooperation on topics like pollution, natural resource management, and environmental research.

2.  The EU has a strategy to stop the decline
of endangered species and habitats by 2020.The
centerpiece is Natura, a network of 26 000
protected natural areas covering almost 20% of the
bloc's land mass.
….These are not nature reserves, but rathersites
where sustainable human activities can take
place without threatening rare and vulnerable
species and habitats.

3. If we are to avoid a crisis in our use of limited natural
resources, fundamental changes are needed to our
economy. As well as lawmaking, the EU helps
provide the public education, research and public
funding crucial for this.
Its response is a blend of long-term plans and
incremental changes – like promoting eco-friendly
products and encouraging greater use of energy-
efficiency labels on consumer appliances like
washing machines.

4. Protecting Europe's shared water resources and
ecosystems effectively from pollution, climate
change and marine litter requires concerted
action at EU level.
EU water policy aims to:
 give all Europeans access to good quality water in
sufficient quantity
 ensure that all water bodies across Europe meet
minimum standards of cleanliness
 preserve vulnerable aquatic environments.

5. Air quality is an area where the EU has been very
active, setting ambitious, cost-effective standards
and targets for a number of pollutants, including
sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and oxides of
nitrogen, particulate matter and lead.
Whilst overall air-quality trends in the EU are
encouraging, continued effort is needed.

6. If we can reduce the amount of waste generated in
the first place, disposing of it will automatically
become simpler.The EU is aiming to do this
through:
 new waste-prevention initiatives
 better use of resources
 encouraging a shift to more sustainable
consumption.

7. … Where waste can't be prevented, materials should
be recovered, preferably by recycling.That's why
the EU is calling for improved manufacturing
methods and asking consumers to demand greener
and recycled products and less packaging.

8. a.) The EU’s main way of backing environmental and
conservation projects is through its LIFE
Programme, which disburses funds both in the EU
and outside, in potential member countries and
other neighbouring countries.
b.) Since 1992, LIFE has put some €2bn into over
3,000 projects, like reintroducing the bearded
vulture in Andalusia, converting laminates into
energy and aluminium and restoring coastal
meadows and wetlands on Baltic Sea islands.

9. Europe 2020 is the EU's growth strategy for the
coming decade, pushing the EU to become a smart,
sustainable and inclusive economy. Under
the Europe 2020 strategy the flagship initiative fo a
resource- efficient points the way towards
sustainable growth and supports a shift towards a
resource-efficient, low-carbon economy.

10. ACT:
Communication of 13 October 1997 from the
Commission to the Council, the European
Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee
on a Europe-Asia Cooperation Strategy in the Field
of Environment.

11. Asia's rapid urbanization and industrialization,
compounded by the poverty of its population,
have been accompanied by environmental
damage.
The Asian countries are increasingly aware of the
need to improve the environment and of the
cost of environmental damage, including lost
productivity and increased medical spending.
Once neglected, environmental issues have in
recent years become a priority in Asia.

12. Europe's position at the forefront of environmental
technologies and services (it holds almost 60% of
the world's patents for environmental technologies)
makes it a key partner for the Asian countries in this
sphere.
At the Essen European Council of 8-14 December
1994, the Member States declared their wish for
greater cooperation and dialogue between Europe
and Asia, especially in the environmental field.

13. The main environmental problems Asia is facing are:
 water pollution (industrialization, domestic sewage,
exhaustion of the groundwater);
 air pollution (transport, energy and industry);
 waste management (the increasing volume of
household and industrial waste);
 land degradation (soil erosion, water logging and
salinity);
 deforestation;
 loss of biodiversity (loss of species and habitat).

14. Asia's needs in the environmental field are
considerable.TheAsian countries will have to
find almost ECU 34 billion a year in public and
private funding for national environmental
investment.
A multipronged strategy is needed, involving:

15.  building Asia's environmental management capacities:
more efficient and rational use of natural resources, the
introduction of a sustainable wealth-creation model
and environmental institutions;
 adopting market-based environmental measures:
mobilising the private sector (providing the necessary
incentives for foreign direct investment that is more
effective than state aid);

16.  focusing cooperation on priority sectors: urban and
industrial pollution, protecting natural resources
etc.;
 fostering environmental research and development
networks between Europe and Asia.

17.  the common interest of the two regions;
 complementarity with measures taken by the
Member States (avoiding needless duplication);
 synergies with international donors (World Bank,
EIB, UNDP);
 the viability of operations when European
involvement ends.