25-26 May: LIFE Environment conference, Brussels, Belgium

How significant is LIFE’s contribution to protecting the environment, and how should it be updated in the light of new EU policy developments? These questions will be addressed by a special LIFE conferenceto be held in Brussels on 25-26 May 2011.

The conference, which is being organised by the European Commission, will take stock of the contribution of LIFE’s Environment Policy and Governance component to environmental protection in the EU, its main achievements, and its potential future contribution, particularly in the context of the next financial perspective 2014-2020.*

Funding programmes are an essential complement to EU legislation. The LIFE programme is the EU’s main financial instrument for the environment. It includes three components: LIFE Environmental Policy and Governance, LIFE Nature and Biodiversity, and LIFE Information and Communication.

LIFE Environment Policy and Governance supports the implementation and updating of EU environment policy through the development of new solutions to environmental challenges and the dissemination of best practices, in both the public and the private sector.

Expected outcomes of the conference:

• A clearer understanding of LIFE’s contribution to environmental protection in Europe;
• Greater awareness of this contribution, particularly among policy-makers at EU level;
• Ideas for the future of the programme, its design and development, which can be fed into the planning cycle.

The conference will also provide an opportunity for stakeholders to exchange experience in the context of the implementation of the LIFE programme.

* Note that this conference does not cover the activities of LIFE Nature and Biodiversity, whose objectives are the preservation of Europe’s nature and biodiversity through the implementation of the Habitats and Birds directives and through other activities.

Target audiences

The conference will bring together:

• Professionals (public authorities, SMEs, other industries, academia);
• EU policy-makers (Commission, Parliament, Council, Committee of the Regions, Member States); and
• Stakeholders of the LIFE programme (beneficiaries, national contact points, other funders).

The outcomes of the conference will be taken into consideration in the revision of the LIFE programme for 2014-2020.

Sessions

Environmental policy on the ground: promoting best practice in the implementation of EU law
This session will seek to provide an overview, with selected examples, of LIFE project contributions to the implementation of EU environmental policy through the dissemination of best practices. An introduction by a keynote speaker will be followed by a panel discussion and debate.

New solutions to environmental challenges in the public and private sector
After looking at policy implementation in the previous session, this session will examine the contribution that LIFE environment projects have made over the years to developing new solutions to environmental challenges and, where relevant, to the updating of EU environment policy. A keynote presentation will again be followed by a panel discussion and debate.

The multiplier effect: how good solutions spread
The LIFE programme places considerable emphasis on the dissemination and replication of novel solutions to environmental challenges. This session will examine the programme’s experience in this area. It will highlight successes and lessons learnt and seek to identify future needs and opportunities.

Complementarity with other funding programmes, at national and EU levels 
This session will examine other significant sources of funding for environmental projects in Europe, including other EU funds. It will, in particular, outline their complementarity and overlaps, and examine how they can better complement each other. Reference will also be made to similar funding programmes in other major industrialised countries (the USA and Japan in particular).

Policy complementarity: how financial support serves environment policy objectives 
This session will discuss the relationship between the LIFE programme and other policy instruments: how LIFE projects help find ways to implement policy; how they help to formulate policy or revise BAT; how the LIFE programme, or individual projects, are used, in conjunction with other policy initiatives, to promote the protection of the environment.

High-level session – the future of LIFE
The concluding session will serve to bring together high-profile decisions-makers, and provide them with an opportunity to draw conclusions and to formulate recommendations for the next LIFE programming period.