Community policy on the environment shall aim at a high level of protection taking into account the diversity of situations in the various regions of the Community. It shall be based on the precautionary principle and on the principles that preventive action should be taken, that environmental damage should as a priority be rectified at source and that the polluter should pay.
For the purposes of achieving the objective set out in Article 1, the tasks of the Agency shall be: ... to stimulate the development and application of environmental forecasting techniques so that adequate preventive measures can be taken in good time ...
