ABSTRACT
The Paris Summit meeting of heads of state and government of the European Economic Community (EEC) in October 1972 can be viewed as the beginning of an independent EU environmental policy. Just a few weeks before the enlargement of the Community to Denmark, the United Kingdom and Ireland (on 1 January 1973), a declaration on environmental and consumer policy was adopted at this summit. The declaration granted the European Commission the task of drawing up an action programme for environmental protection. To this end, a task force was created in the Commission, from which today’s Directorate General (DG) for the Environment has emerged.
