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The Directorate-General for the Environment (DG Environment) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission, responsible for the European Union policy area of the environment.

The DGs main role is to initiate and define new environmental legislation and to ensure that measures, which have been agreed, are actually put into practice in the Member States. The overall mission statement for 2005 is: "Protecting, preserving and improving the environment for present and future generations, and promoting sustainable development". The mission statement is divided into the following sub-statements [1]:

• To maintain and improve the quality of life through a high level of protection of our natural resources, effective risk assessment and management and the timely implementation of Community legislation.
• To foster resource-efficiency in production, consumption and waste-disposal measures.
• To integrate environmental concerns into other EU policy areas.
• To promote growth in the EU that takes account of the economic, social and environmental needs both of our citizens and of future generations.
• To address the global challenges facing us notably combating climate change and the international conservation of biodiversity.
• To ensure that all policies and measures in the above areas are based on a multi-sectoral approach, involve all stakeholders in the process and are communicated in an effective way.

The Directorate-General for Environment has a staff of about 650 civil servants.

• Commissioner: Stavros Dimas
• Director General: Mogens Peter CARL

Past commissioners:

• Prodi Commission, Margot Wallstrom, 1999-2004

The Environment DG is based largely in Brussels with the unit dealing with radiation protection based in Luxembourg.

The Directorate-General is organised into an Office of the Director-General and 7 directorates:

• Directorate A: Communication, Legal Affairs & Civil Protection
• Directorate B: Protecting the Natural Environment
• Directorate C: Climate Change & Air
• Directorate D: Water, Chemicals & Cohesion
• Directorate E: International affairs & LIFE
• Directorate F: Resources
• Directorate G: Sustainable Development & Integration

• Aarhus Convention
• Directorate-General of the Joint Research Centre (DG JRC)
• European Environment Agency

• Directorate General for the Environment