COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION

on the precautionary principle

COM (2000)1

On 2 February 2000 the Commission adopted the Communication on the use of the Precautionary Principle. The aim of this Communication is to inform all interested parties of the manner in which the Commission applies and intends to apply the principle and to establish guidelines for its application. These guidelines are intended to serve as general guidance and in no way affect the provisions of the Treaty or secondary Community legislation. The general Communication also aims to provide input in on-going debate on this issue both at EU and international level.

The Communication highlights the fact that the Precautionary Principle should be considered within a structured approach to the analysis of the risk and it is particularly relevant to the management of the risk.

The Communication complements the recently adopted White Paper on Food Safety and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, adopted in Montreal on 28 January 2000 at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

A summary of the Communication is presented in the first few pages. Press release and the communication are available by clicking the language icons below.

Press release

Communication on the precautionary principle

(pdf ~150K)

Follow the progress of this communication on the PreLex database.