The protection of the environment

The environmental policy, as well as the defense of the consumer or the regional,among others, appeared not collected in the founding treaties of the nascentEuropean Communities [1], but that has its origin in the early 1970s, moment in whichit is noted worldwide the problem posed by the depletion of natural resources , andyou begin to use concepts such as quality of life or environment as a complement tothe requirements of development and economic expansion (Molina of the well). At thesame time, the economic and social development were affected by the problemsassociated with the environment, being now the beginning of a new stage, in whichbegins to acquire some importance and concern for environmental issues by theinternational community, such as: overexploitation of natural resources, naturalhazards, and water stress.

As a result of the above, in June of 1972 was held the Conference of UN on Human Habitat in Stockholm, whose objective was to establish certain policies governing the aspects related to the quality of life, environment environmental, as a complement to the demands of economic development. The poor performance at the time by the European communities, was due to the absence of a common European legal base in the field of environment, integrating the environment into other policies, therefore had to proceed on several occasions to establish a common legal basis, until the current TFEU, which together with article 115 of the TFEU (former article 94 TEC) , they served to legally substantiate the European policy in the field of environment, responding to the interest of the common institutions to unify a series of actions aimed at the protection of the environment. In this regard, the community adopted minimum requirements that contribute to the pursuit of a number of very general objectives. The competence of the community in this area is relatively wide, and Member States may always go beyond the minimum requirements. In short, it is competence shared between the Union and the Member States. These powers extend to cooperation with third countries and international organizations existing and competent in the matter, without prejudice to the competence of Member States to negotiate in international institutions and for the conclusion of international agreements.

The protection of the environment has been one of the key objectives of the Union (art. 3.1, letter l TCE), and the inclusion of the environment within the catalogue offundamental rights of the European Union (article 37 CEDF, art.6 TCE and art.11 TFEU),it is an important step forward, however limited to establish a principle of action whichshould be respected by the Union in the development of their policies integrating theenvironment in the definition and the implementation of the policies and actions ofthe community and not devoting a "Fundamental" subjective right to a healthyenvironment. However, the jurisprudence of the European Court of human rights, hasgiven an indirect protection to this right considering that attacks on the environmentseriously affecting people's private life, are considered violations of article 8 of theEuropean Convention on human rights (Rome Convention), which protects the right to private and family life.

Currently, articles 191, 192 and 193 of the TFEU (174 175 and 176 of the EC Treaty) arearticles that mention and integrate the environment within the Union's policy. Thispolicy aims to achieve a high level of environmental and homogenous protectionwithin the territory of each Member State (paragraph 4, article 191 TFEU and 174 TCE).

In article 191 TFEU (174 of the EC Treaty), refers to the objectives that the Union hasraised in the field of environment, the objectives are:

-the conservation, protection and improvement of the quality of the environment

-the protection of people's health

-prudent and rational utilization of natural resources

-the promotion of measures at international level to deal with regional or globalproblems of the environment and in particular to fight against climate change.