Principles and regularities of European environmental law development and formation

Environmental issues are now showing a clear tendency to expand their scope. It includes many different, interrelated aspects. The most important of them are the philosophical and methodological, social, ideological, economic, political, technical, and legal aspects. Of course, we are interested in the environmental and legal aspects. It is worth noting that environmental and legal sciences have recently been paying increasing attention to the socio-humanitarian consequences of human alteration of the natural environment, the reverse impact of such changes on human life, and the issues of ensuring legal means of environmental safety. At the same time, the problem of harmonizing relations between humans and nature is becoming more and more relevant. There is an active search for ways and means of optimizing human relations with the environment and ensuring sustainable development of the human-biosphere system. Today, the environmental and legal science of the European Union plays an extremely important role in solving this problem. The article examines the principles and regularities of European environmental law development and formation. The authors analyze the provisions set out in the scientific works of leading scholars in the field of European law, which influenced the formation of EU environmental law and remain relevant today. In support of this, the authors cite the provisions of the 8th Environment Action Programme (EAP) adopted in 2022, which is based on the polluter pays principle, the precautionary principle, the principle of preventive action, and the principle of rectification of pollution at source. In addition, the authors examine topical issues of protection of environmental rights of man and citizen, in particular, the formation of the right to a favorable environment in EU law and possible forms of such a right, the right to information on the environment. The article emphasizes that the issues under consideration, which touch upon the fundamental principles of EU environmental law, are extremely relevant for Ukraine in the context of European integration.