The Action Plan will build on and complement the Innovation Union by focusing on specific bottlenecks, challenges and opportunities for achieving environmental objectives through innovation and at the same time generate economic and employment opportunities. It will also detail and operationalise further some of more generic actions highlighted in the Innovation Union.

This Action Plan will further develop and build upon existing experience infrastructure and commitment established by Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP) in shaping more  eco-innovation friendly environmental policy. It will implement a holistic approach to eco-innovation, in order to address the challenge of environmental deterioration without detriment to economic development and job creation. In particular the Action Plan will:

• Promote innovation from environmental goods, services and solutions to wider eco-innovation opportunities in environment policy, management and business models;
• Focus  on the sustainable management of natural capital and natural resources, on the reduction of air, water, soil and noise pollution and on the reduction of risks related to the use of chemicals and hazardous substances;
• Promote new environmental governance structures to bridge the innovation gap between business and environment and mobilise private and public sector, financial institutions and national authorities for eco-innovation action;
• Promote eco-innovation as a major tool to integrate environmental concerns into other EU policies, in particular agriculture, rural development and cohesion policies;
• Facilitate networking between businesses and other stakeholders of eco-innovation in the EU with those in third countries.

The actions and structure of the Eco-innovation Action Plan will be reviewed by 2013 in light of the achievements and lessons learned of the Innovation Union and the structure of the new financial perspective.