In "The Economics of Environmental Agreements" ^†, Edoardo Croci cites the Commission of European Communities (now the European Commission) publication, Communication on Environmental Agreements, 1996, as arguing that Voluntary Agreements can be considered contacts "between individual companies and/or associations of companies, on the one hand, and public authorities, on the other hand, concluded with the aim of protecting or restoring the enviroment".

The European Commision has defined the typical elements of a Voluntary Agreement contract:

1. Parties to the agreement (associations and/or individual firms).
2. Subject
3. Definition of terms
4. Quantified objectives
5. Staged approach
6. Specification of obligations
7. Monitoring of results
8. Periodic reporting
9. Access to information
10. Arrangements for colleciton/evalution/verification of results
11. Sanctions
12. Accession of third parties
13. Duration
14. Revision
15. Termination
16. Legal nature of the agreement
17. Juristiction

^† Article can be found in The Handbook of Environmental Voluntary Agreements Design, Implementation and Evaluation Issues Series: Environment & Policy , Vol. 43 Croci, Edoardo (Ed.) 2005, XIV, 391 p., Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4020-3355-1