COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 03.09.1997 
COM(97)430 final 
Report to the Council and the European Parliament on the execution of the 
four-year development programme relating to the environmental component 
of Community statistics adopted under Council Decision 94/808/EC of 15 
December 1994 
(presented by the Commission) 

Report to the Council and the European Parliament on the execution of the 
four-year development programme relating to the environmental component 
of Community statistics adopted under Council Decision 94/808/EC of 15 
December 1994 
1. SUMMARY 2 
2. BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES 3 
3. POLICY CONTEXT* ENVIRONMENT 4 
4. POLICY CONTEXT: STATISTICS 4 
5. RESOURCES 5 
6. ACTIONS AND RESULTS .. 5 
7. PRESSURES RESULTING FROM HUMAN ACTIVITIES 5 
7.1 COMMON PROJECTS 5 
7.2 EMISSIONS 6 
7.3 WASTE STATISTICS 6 
7.4 WATER STATISTICS 7 
7.5 PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS 7 
7.6 ENERGY PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION 8 
7.7 TRANSPORT 8 
7.8 OTHER DOMAINS 8 
8. ECONOMIC AND SOCIETAL RESPONSES 9 
8.1 PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS 9 
8.2 WASTE MANAGEMENT 9 
8.3 TRANSPORT 9 
8.4 PUBLIC SERVICES 10 
8.5 POPULATION GROWTH, HOUSEHOLDS AND SOCIAL WELFARE 10 
9. FRAMEWORKS 10 
9.1 PRESSURE INDICES PROJECT 11 
9.2 INTEGRATION OF ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL DATA 12 
9.3 ENVIRONMENTAL SATELLITE ACCOUNTS 12 
10. COMMON ACTIONS 13 
lCtl QUESTIONNAIRES 13 
10.2 PUBLICATIONS 14 
10.3 DATABASES 14 
11. EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY 14 
12. EVALUATION OF THE PROGRAMME 15 
TABLE 1: POLICY FIELDS FOR THE PRESSURE INDICES PROJECT 18 
TABLE 2: ACTIONS CLASSIFIED BY TYPE OF DATA 19 
TABLE 3: ACTIONS CLASSIFIED BY TYPE OF ACTION 20 
TABLE 4: LIST OF PUBLICATIONS 1994-MID 1997 21 
TABLE 5: BUDGET RESOURCES 1994-1997 22 
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1. SUMMARY 
Council Decision 94/808/EC of 15 December 1994 established a four-year 
programme to develop the environmental component of Community statistics. 
Under this programme, the Commission is establishing the regular official statistics 
needed to measure both the pressures on the environment resulting from human 
activities, and also the economic and societal responses aimed at reducing these 
pressures. These statistics are to be collected and transmitted to Eurostat by 
national statistical services using harmonized definitions and methodologies. 
Special emphasis is given to the requirement for integrating environment statistics 
into other Community statistics and to the use of international statistical standards, 
as well as to coordination with the European Environment Agency. 
The present report is submitted in accordance with Article 6 of the Decision. It 
describes the actions undertaken, and the results achieved, in each of the areas of 
work defined in the Decision. It also provides an overall evaluation of the 
programme. 
The review of actions and results shows that the Commission and the Member 
States have succeeded in developing the frameworks, including harmonized 
definitions and methodologies, needed to proceed with the regular transmission of 
official statistics in several of the most important work areas listed in the Decision, 
notably waste statistics and environmental expenditures. However, progress on 
establishing regular data flows has been slower than expected, due both to the 
amount of preparatory work involved and to lack of resources in Member States. 
The report also draws attention to the successful coordination which has been 
achieved with the European Environment Agency. As foreseen in the Decision, the 
Agency is making extensive use of statistics obtained via the official statistical 
systems of Member States in order to carry out its own tasks, notably that of 
regular reporting on the state of the environment. 
The report concludes that, in order to complete the various methodological 
projects currently under way, notably in the areas of environmental indicators and 
green national accounting, and also to establish regular data flows, it would be 
appropriate to propose a prolongation of the four-year programme. 
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2. BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES 
The increasing number and coverage of existing and proposed Community actions 
on environment in the late 1980s produced a strong demand for data and 
information relating to environment policy. Several developments aimed at 
satisfying this demand: 
• in 1985, the Council adopted a Decision setting up the CORINE Programme. 
• in 1987, a specialised unit for environment statistics was established within the 
Commission, in Eurostat. 
• in 1989, the Commission put forward a proposal for a European Environment 
Agency (EEA) and a European Information and Observation Network 
(EIONET). 
• in 1989, the Commission proposed a four year development programme 
directed at the statistical data related to environment. 
The Council Decision adopting a 4-year programme on environment statistics was 
finally adopted by the Council in December 1994. Its objective is to develop the 
environmental component of official statistics and to be available in all Member 
States. 
Under Article 6, the Decision requires a report to the European Parliament and the 
Council; the present report sets out to fulfil this obligation by providing 
- a description of the actions undertaken by the Commission, together with 
the results achieved so far; 
- an evaluation of the development programme, 
In this context, "official statistics" refers to those data which are normally collected 
by or under the responsibility of national statistical services, which in most Member 
States have the primary legal responsibility for collecting statistical data from 
individuals, enterprises and other economic entities as well as from public 
Administrations. Within the Commission, statistics are formally the responsibility of 
Eurostat. 
In proposing this development programme, the Commission saw the need to 
encourage the transfer of expertise on environment statistics between national 
statistical services, taking advantage of the already well-developed capabilities of 
certain Member States. This would lead to a situation in which all national 
statistical services would have the capacity to collect, process and validate a wide 
range of environmentally-relevant statistics. For maximum efficiency, the collection 
of environment statistics would be integrated as far as possible into existing data 
collection mechanisms such as the existing surveys and registers for industry and 
agriculture. 
In addition, the Commission proposed to promote the use of agreed common 
methodologies in order to harmonize such environment statistics. Wherever 
possible, these methodologies would also be agreed at an international level so that 
the resulting statistics would be comparable at a global level, while taking account 
of Community interests. 
Both data collection and methodological harmonization v/ould, within the limits of 
the available resources, cover the full range of statistical variables and economic 
activities set out in Annex A of the Decision. 
It was envisaged that such official statistics and information collected by the EEA 
via EIONET would be complementary, thereby satisfying the Community's very 
broad information needs in relation to environment policy and to the environmental 
aspects of other policies. The Decision therefore contains specific provisions for 
co-ordination between Eurostat and the EEA (Art. 1, 4, 6 and Annex B). 
3. POLICY CONTEXT: ENVIRONMENT 
The present environment policy objectives of the EU are set out in the Fifth 
Environmental Action Programme (5EAP)1. 
In particular, the 5EAP refers to the importance of "exploiting and strengthening 
the experiences and capacities [...] traditional official statistics in the economic and 
social fields". There is a direct link between the role of statistics and the 5EAP's 
emphasis on target sectors and on instruments. In fact, statistical information is 
itself identified as an "instrument" in the section of the 5EAP on "broadening the 
range of instruments". 
4. POLICY CONTEXT: STATISTICS 
Current Community policy on statistics in general is set out in the Council Decision 
93/464/EEC2 adopting a framework programme for priority actions in the field of 
statistical information 1993-1997 (the "Statistical Programme"), and in Council 
Regulation (EC) No 322/973 on the role of Eurostat as regards the production of 
Community Statistics. These texts include, inter alia, provision for the Commission 
to be assisted by the Statistical Programme Committee (SPC) established under 
Decision 89/3 82/EEC, Euratom4 
Decision 93/464/EEC on the Statistical Programme foresees the need for "specific 
implementing" actions in various domains. The SPC provides a channel by which 
the services of Member States which are responsible for implementing statistical 
actions can express their opinions regarding the desirability and feasibility of such 
1 Resolution of the Council and the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, 
meeting within the Council of 1 February 1993 on a Community programme of policy and 
action in relation to the environment and sustainable development. OJ No C138, 17.5.1993, 
pl-
2 OJ No L219-, 28.8.1993, pl. 
3 Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997. OJ No L52, 22.2.1997 
4 OJ No L181, 28.6.1989, p47. 
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actions. For the development of environment statistics, the present Decision 
contains provisions for the Commission itself to adopt certain types of measures 
after consulting the SPC. However, before the Decision was adopted, the 
Commission gave assurances to the Council that this provision would be used 
sparingly, and without any intention of by-passing the decision-making powers of 
the Council and the European Parliament. In fact, up until now, the Commission 
has not made any use of this provision. 
5. RESOURCES 
The financial statement attached to the Decision on the four-year development 
programme for environment statistics indicated planned expenditure 
(commitments) of 9 Mio ECU over the period 1994-1997, using the normal budget 
resources for statistics in Chapter B5-6 (see Table 5). The total resources actually 
available were slightly higher (about 10.4 Mio ECU). Resources available from 
Chapter B5-6 were lower than intended, but additional resources were made 
available from Chapter B4-3 (environment) and other budget lines, as shown in 
Table 5. The extra resources from Chapter B4-3 were made available principally to 
support the rapid execution of the actions listed in the Communication on 
environmental indicators and green national accounting (see Point 9). 
6. ACTIONS AND RESULTS 
Actions under the present Decision can.be classified in two ways, by a distinction 
(Article 2(3)) between information on: 
• the pressures on the environment resulting from human activities; 
• economic and societal responses to environmental policies and to changes 
in the state of the environment; 
as well as 
• by work area (Annex A(2)); 
• by type of data (Annex A(2)); 
• by type of action or method (Art. 2(4) and Annex A(3)). 
For clarity, this report presents actions classified by "pressures" and "responses" 
and by work area. Cross references to "type of data" and "type of action" are 
provided in summary tables (Table 2, Table 3). 
7. PRESSURES RESULTING FROM HUMAN ACTIVITIES 
7.1 Common projects 
Common projects on pressures resulting from human activities include work on 
emissions, on waste statistics and on water statistics. They also include work to 
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develop pressure indicators and indices capable of measuring the pressures 
resulting from all economic activities (see 9.1). 
7.2 Emissions 
Emissions: Eurostat collects data on emissions of some air pollutants via the 
regular joint Eurostat-OECD questionnaire on the state of the environment (see 
10.1). 
Eurostat also provides statistics and related technical information as input to the 
CORINAIR air emissions inventory which is managed by the European 
Environment Agency. CORINAIR provides a harmonized framework for 
compiling air emissions data in all Member States, with close links to national 
emissions inventories. 
In addition, Eurostat and the European Environment Agency are working on a set 
of "common tools" for a future Integrated Emissions Inventory, which will cover 
emissions to air, water and land for a wide range of pollutants. Within this project, 
Eurostat has developed a draft standard statistical Nomenclature for Sources of 
Emissions (NOSE), which facilitates the linking of emissions data to economic 
activities defined according to NACE. 
For emissions from industrial sources, it is foreseen that a Pollutant Emissions 
Register (PER) will be developed under the provisions of Article 15 of the 
Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control which was adopted by 
the Council in 1996. The use of common nomenclatures would enable the PER 
information to be used in the future Integrated Emissions Inventory. 
7.3 Waste statistics 
Since 1988, statistics on waste generation and waste management have been 
collected regularly by Eurostat as part of the regular joint Eurostat-OECD 
questionnaire on the state of the environment (see 10.1). In order to bring about 
needed improvements in the coverage and comparability of these statistics, 
Eurostat has been working with Member States to develop an improved common 
approach to waste statistics. Several years of studies and pilot surveys led to a 
draft proposal for a Council Regulation on waste statistics which is to be 
transmitted by the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament later in 
1997. 
The draft proposal provides for the regular transmission of statistics on the 
generation, collection and treatment of waste, including waste recovery and 
recycling. It covers wastes from all types of economic activity except agriculture, 
forestry and fishing, together with wastes generated by households. For statistical 
reporting purposes, wastes are classified according to an aggregated and 
restructured version of the European Waste Catalogue. The draft proposal also 
includes detailed coding schemes for waste handling and treatment operations. 
This proposal, if adopted, would result in a regular flow of harmonized statistics on 
waste; in order to minimize the burden on enterprises and other data providers, the 
proposal has been simplified to include only the essential data needed for the 
development and monitoring of waste policy. 
The Commission also included statistical provisions in its revised proposal for a 
Directive on landfills, which has already been sent to the Council and Parliament in 
1997. 
The adoption of legal bases for statistics on waste would signal the willingness of 
Member States to support a more regular flow of information on waste than is the 
case at present. 
7.4 Water statistics 
Since 1988, statistics on water have been collected regularly by Eurostat as part of 
the regular joint Eurostat-OECD questionnaire on the state of the environment (see 
10.1). During the period 1994-1997, effort has focused on improving the 
completeness and comparability of data on water resources, sectoral water use 
and waste water treatment, as well as in developing appropriate indicators. 
Eurostat proposed improved definitions for these statistics, and requested to 
Member States to review all data already supplied to Eurostat. In addition, 
Eurostat is supporting the development of water statistics in Member States where 
such statistics have not up to now been regularly compiled. 
Methodological studies in this area are continuing. One such study has resulted in a 
methodology for obtaining harmonized estimates of renewable water resources by 
catchment or administrative area, with the possibility of monitoring available 
resources on a seasonal basis. 
The work already completed should lead to a significant improvement in the 
quality of the the regular water statistics produced by Eurostat. 
7.5 Production and consumption of agricultural and industrial products 
In addition to the common projects mentioned above, pesticide use and nutrient 
balances have been identified as key areas for improving statistics which measure 
environmental pressures from agriculture. 
Pesticide use: Eurostat has started to compile more detailed statistics on pesticide 
use than were previously available. In order to improve the availability of data, 
Eurostat has supported the exchange of information between Member States on 
the methodology of pesticide use surveys directed to farmers. As a tool for these 
surveys, a database linking commercial pesticide names to chemical names has been 
produced. A first publication on pesticide statistics was issued in 1996. 
Nutrient balances: Eurostat has started to compile regular nutrient balances for 
NUTS 3 regions, using a harmonized methodology based on the experience of 
Member States. These balances are based on the detailed agricultural statistics 
(livestock numbers and fertiliser use) already collected by Eurostat. The balances 
provide information on nitrogen surpluses on agricultural land and thus on trends 
in the potential emissions of nitrogen and other substances to surface and 
groundwater, and also to the air. 
Pesticide and nutrient balance data, together with other data provided by Member 
States, will be used to produce a set of regular agro-environment indicators. 
These indicators are fully compatible with other Community agricultural statistics, 
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and together will provide a balanced picture of the economic and social importance 
of the agricultural sector as well as of the environmental pressures resulting from 
agricultural production. 
7.6 Energy production and consumption 
Making use of its already well-developed energy statistics, Eurostat publishes 
annual statistics on carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion. These 
statistics are estimates based on final energy consumption data supplied by Member 
States, and a set of common emission factors; from 1997, Eurostat uses the default 
emission factors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These 
statistics can be used to validate both the national inventories of carbon dioxide 
emissions supplied by Member States under Council Decision 389/93 and also the 
more detailed CORINAIR emissions inventories (see 7.1). 
Other emissions data linked to energy production and consumption are covered by 
the work on emissions described above. 
Although not part of the development programme covered by the present Decision, 
it may be noted here that since 1994, Eurostat has extended its regular energy 
statistics to cover renewable energy sources, including biomass, solar energy and 
wind power (hydroelectric energy has always been included), with data extending 
backwards to 1989. 
7.7 Transport 
A range of indicators measuring environmentally-relevant trends in transport and 
pressures linked to transport has been included for several years in Eurostat 
publications such as the regular compendium Environment Statistics and Europe's 
Environment: The Dobris Assessment. In addition, data on transport-related 
pressures were compiled for the publication Road transport and the environment 
in the European Union. 
7.8 Other domains 
The other domains listed in Annex A of the Decision are: 
• extraction and consumption of raw materials 
•. construction and settlement 
• leisure and tourism 
• population growth, households and social welfare 
• public services 
These domains are included within the common projects on emissions, waste 
statistics and water statistics, as well as on pressure indicators and indices. 
8. ECONOMIC AND SOCIETAL RESPONSES 
8.1 Production and consumption of agricultural and industrial products 
A conceptual framework, SERIEE, for statistics on expenditure on 
environmental protection, linked to national accounts has been developed and 
tested via studies and pilot surveys (see 9.3). Some data on environmental 
expenditure by industry have been collected via a voluntary questionnaire sent to 
Member States in 1996, and also via the joint Eurostat-OECD questionnaire on 
pollution abatement end control expenditure (see 10.1). While availability of such 
data in Member States has improved since 1994, the data remain incomplete. 
In early 1997, the Council adopted a Regulation on Structural Business Statistics5 
which provides a legal base for regular transmission by Member States of statistics 
on "end of pipe" investments for environmental protection, within the framework 
of regular industrial statistics, starting with data for 1995. The Regulation also 
provides for pilot surveys on investments in integrated technologies and on current 
expenditure for environmental protection. It is hoped that the adoption of this legal 
base signals an improvement in the ability of Member States to supply data on a 
regular basis; however, most Member States have requested derogations from the 
obligation to supply statistics for the year 1995. 
Environmental expenditure is a measure of the consumption of certain categories 
of environmental goods and services. In parallel, Eurostat, in collaboration with 
OECD, has developed internationally agreed definitions of the eco-industries 
which produce goods and services used for environmental protection. An initial 
study in 1996, using these definitions, produced estimates of turnover and 
employment in eco-industries in the EU; it is intended to follow this work by 
regular data collection in collaboration with Member States. 
Eurostat has also collaborated with other Commission services and with OECD in 
order to arrive at agreed definitions to permit the compilation of statistics on eco-
taxes and other economic instruments related to environmental protection. 
8.2 Waste management 
Provisions for statistics on waste management are included within the proposed 
Council Regulation on waste statistics and the proposed Directive on landfills, and 
also within the Council Regulation on Structural Business Statistics (see 7.1). The 
necessary technical preparations have been included within the work on waste 
statistics in general and, for economic data, within the work on environmental 
protection expenditure. 
8.3 Transport 
A set of economic and fiscal indicators related to transport was compiled for the 
first time in 1996 and published in Road transport and the environment - energy 
and fiscal aspects. 
5 Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural 
business statistics. OJ No L14, 17.1.1997, pl. 
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8.4 Public services 
SERIEE also provides a conceptual framework for statistics on expenditure on 
environmental protection by public administrations. In this context, 
environmental protection activities include, inter alia, waste water treatment (see 
7.4) and waste management (see 7.3 and 8.2). Data have have been collected via a 
voluntary questionnaire sent to Member States in 1996, and also via the joint 
Eurostat-OECD questionnaire; as for environmental expenditures by industry, the 
information provided by Member States is somewhat incomplete, although for 
different reasons. 
A study on expenditure on environmental protection by the EU has been completed 
and the results will be published in 1997. 
Statistics on public budgets for research and development on the environment 
are included in Eurostat*s regular statistics on research and development budgets. 
The standard statistical classification used (NABS) was revised in 1994, in 
collaboration with OECD, with some improvement of the references to 
environmental research. 
Proposals have been formulated for the inclusion of environmental expenditure in 
the standard statistical Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG), 
which is part of the European System of Accounts (ES A). 
8.5 Population growth, households and social welfare 
Social and demographic indicators are collected and published regularly by 
Eurostat, and have not been directly the subject of actions under the present 
Decision. It may be noted that considerable effort has been invested by Eurostat in 
the improvement of population projections, which are of special interest for 
environment policy. 
Proposals have been formulated for the inclusion of specific items of environmental 
expenditure by households in the standard statistical Classification of Individual 
Consumption by Purpose (COICOP), which is part of the European System of 
Accounts (ESA). 
9. FRAMEWORKS 
According to the Decision (Annex A), the programme included, as a priority, work 
on: 
• defining an accounting framework for integrating economic data on the 
environment in overall accounting systems such as environmental satellite 
accounts and their links with the System of National Accounts and with natural 
resource accounting; 
• contributing to the development of natural resource accounting. 
Given the importance attached to this work area, Eurostat and other Commission 
services engaged during 1993-94 in a fundamental review of options for work in 
this area. The outcome of this review was the strategy described in the 
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Communication to the Council and the Parliament on environmental indicators and 
green national accounting6, which was adopted by the Commission in December 
1994. 
This strategy is based on three ideas: 
• the objective is to construct statistical instruments for policy guiding and for 
public information. These instruments should link pressures, policy fields and 
economic activities; 
• physical as well as monetary information should be included; 
• the accepted concepts of national accounting should be used as far as possible. 
In order to achieve the stated objective, the Commission is working on five parallel 
actions: 
Action 1 Production of a Handbook laying out an agreed common 
framework for "green national accounting" 
Action 2 Establishment of a European System of Environmental Pressure 
Indices (see 9.1) 
Action 3 Establishment of a European System of Integrated Economic and 
Environmental Indices (see 9.2) 
Action 4 Establishment of environmental satellite accounts to the national 
accounts (see 9.3). 
Action 5 Improving the methodology and enlarging the scope of monetary 
valuation of environmental damage. This Action is being carried out 
primarily within the Community RDT programme and does not 
form part of Eurostat's work programme under the present 
Decision. 
These Actions are being carried out in parallel, starting in 1995, with results 
becoming available in stages between 1997 and 1999. Such parallel approaches 
were considered indispensable on technical grounds, since this work involves many 
methodological innovations and it would have been dangerous to rely on any single 
approach. 
9.1 Pressure Indices Project 
The objective of the Pressure Indices Project is to produce a set of indices 
measuring aggregated environmental pressures for each of the ten policy fields 
listed in Table 1, which are broadly identical with those listed in the 5EAP. (See 
Point 3). 
6 COM(94)670 final. 
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Each of the ten indices will be a weighted combination of at least five pressure 
indicators relevant to that field. The selection of indicators and the assessment of 
weighting factors are achieved through a series of surveys of experts in the 
particular policy field. 
The expert surveys are being carried out in stages over the period 1995-1997 and 
the results of the second round of indicator selection were available in early 1997. 
Work on weighting factors will proceed over the period 1997-1998 and the first 
results of the project will be published in 1998. 
In order to link the pressure indices to economic activities, it is intended that the 
selected pressure indicators should be capable of measuring the contribution of the 
"sectors" used in the 5EAP, that is, energy, industry, transport, agriculture, 
tourism and waste management. For each of these sectors, studies have been made 
to identify relevant indicators and to evaluate data sources. 
In order to provide the capacity to estimate and store the necessary data on 
environmental pressures, the Envstat database (see Databases) is being extended to 
form an Environmental Pressure Information System (EPIS). 
9.2 Integration of economic and environmental data 
For the integration of economic and environmental data, Eurostat is working 
towards a system in which environmental variables will be included in a national 
accounting matrix. Such an approach has already been used by several Member 
States, including the Netherlands NAMEA (National Accounting Matrix including 
Environmental Accounts) and similar systems in Denmark, Germany, Austria and 
Sweden. All Member States are now working on NAMEA-like systems which will, 
initially, be based on a a subdivision of the economy into 60-70 branches 
(production activities plus final consumption by households) and environmental 
variables including emissions and environmental protection expenditures. Such a 
framework is in principle capable of being expanded to include a wider range of 
indicators and aggregated pressure indices, linked to policy fields as described 
above (see 9.1). 
Coordinated work by Member States started in 1995 and new results in the form of 
pilot NAMEA-like systems from some countries will become available in late 1997, 
although it will take longer for full integration of the national tables into a common 
Community framework. 
9.3 Environmental satellite accounts 
Satellite accounts are foreseen in the ESA7 as the normal tool for accommodating 
specific data needs within the overall conceptual framework of national accounts. 
Satellite accounts provide tools for the development and monitoring of specific 
policies, for example health care, education, social welfare and environment. They 
can serve such data needs by including extra detail, by changing basic concepts and 
by enlarging the scope of the accounting framework with non-monetary 
information. 
7 European System of Accounts, 1995. 
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Eurostat is working with national statistical services to produce two classes of 
environmental satellite accounts: 
• the Environmental Protection Expenditure Account (EPEA) as defined within 
SERIEE. This makes use of data on environmental protection expenditures 
together with data on eco-industries and eco-taxes, and other data on financing 
flows in Member States (see 8.1 and 8.4). EPEA provides policy-makers with 
information on the impact of environmental protection expenditures on the 
economy (including employment) at national and EU level. 
• natural resource accounts for forests, water, and sub-soil assets, as defined 
within the System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting 
(SEEA)8. These accounts integrate data on physical stocks and flows together 
with data on related economic transactions. The natural resource accounts 
provide policy-makers with information on the interaction between resource use 
and the economy, which is directly relevant for an evaluation of policies in terms 
of sustainability criteria. 
Work on satellite accounts has been on-going since 1993 with pilot accounts for an 
increasing range of domains and of Member States being produced, limited by the 
availability of staff and resources in the Member States. 
In addition, it should be noted that the ESA now provides for the inclusion of 
information on the depletion of certain owned natural resources in the main 
accounts. 
10. COMMON ACTIONS 
10.1 Questionnaires 
Since 1988, regular general data collection from Member States has been focused 
on a joint Eurostat-OECD questionnaire on the state of the environment, with 
sections on air, inland waters, marine environment, forests, land use, wildlife, 
noise, and wastes. This questionnaire is sent to Member States every two years. 
The questionnaire provides a de facto standard set of tables and definitions for 
about 2500 environment variables for which data are requested at country level. 
The questionnaire is accepted as a basis for voluntary data collection by all OECD 
member countries and, subject to reservations about comparability for some 
variables, provides a basis for comparison of environmental trends between the EU 
and other OECD countries. 
Since the joint questionnaire was fully revised in the period 1990-1992, no major 
changes were required during the period covered by the present Decision, although 
minor improvements were made for both the 1994 and 1996 questionnaires. 
In 1996, an additional joint Eurostat-OECD questionnaire on pollutant and 
abatement control expenditure was added. Earlier versions of this questionnaire 
had been used by OECD alone, although Eurostat contributed to its development, 
8 SEEA reference here 
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and as far as possible it uses concepts and definitions which are aligned with 
SERIEE. 
In 1996, a new regional environment questionnaire was initiated by Eurostat, in 
which Member States were requested to supply data for about 50 variables at 
NUTS2 level. These variables are a subset of those included in the joint Eurostat-
OECD questionnaires and were selected to provide indicators for assessment of 
environmental investments via the EU Structural Funds. This questionnaire is also 
being used to collect data from countries in eastern and central Europe which have 
applied for EU membership. The first results from this exercise will be available in 
late 1997. 
10.2 Publications 
Article 2(4) includes dissemination under the types of action to be included in the 
development programme for environment statistics. 
During the period of the programme, Eurostat has disseminated both 
methodological information and statistics in a range of publications (see Table 4). 
In addition, selected environment statistics have been included in a number of 
general publications (Eurostat Yearbook, Basic Statistics of the Community, 
Europe in Figures, etc). Eurostat has also made substantial contributions to 
publications by the European Environment Agency (Europe's Environment: the 
Dobris Assessment (1995) and Environment in the European Union 1995). 
Dissemination also involves information supplied in response to information 
requests received by Eurostat. In addition, the results of some studies have been 
disseminated to specialists in the form of working papers. 
10.3 Databases 
Eurostat has developed a production database, Envstat, as a repository for 
working data collected from Member States and other data providers. Envstat has 
facilities for handling methodological and other information alongside statistics, as 
a tool to improve the quality of information. It is also capable of calculating some 
derived statistics, allowing additional series to be estimated in certain cases. 
Data for dissemination are copied into the MILIEU domain of the Eurostat 
reference database, New Cronos, to which certain outside users have direct access. 
MILIEU data are also made available on electronic media. 
11. EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY 
Article 4 and Annex ^ I the present Decision contain provisions for coordination 
of the development programme on environment statistics with the work 
programme of the European Environment Agency (EEA). 
An effective coordination has achieved through four actions: 
• a Memorandum of Understanding between Eurostat and the EEA was signed in 
May 1995, setting out basic rules and procedures both for general cooperation 
between the two organizations and for implementation of the relevant 
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provisions of the Decision on the development programme for environment 
statistics and of the EEA Regulation9. 
• Eurostat has taken special care to frame its annual work programmes and to 
assign resources to its projects in such a way as to complement and support the 
projects included in the annual and multiannual work programmes of the EEA. 
Eurostat has also worked with the EEA to identify areas where statistical data 
are available or could be made available for use in EEA projects, most notably 
in the production of reports on the state of the environment. Eurostat provided 
extensive statistical support for the Dobris pan-European state of environment 
report project during 1992-1995, leading up to the publication in 1995 of the 
EEA report Europe's environment: the Dobris assessment and the companion 
Statistical Compendium by Eurostat, UNECE, OECD and WHO (see Table 4). 
• as required by the Decision, the annual statistical work programme submitted to 
the Statistical Programme Committee has also been submitted to the EEA 
Management Board. This procedure started with the 1996 work programme, 
which was the first annual programme established after the adoption of the 
present Decision. The 1996 work programme was reviewed by the EEA 
Management Board on 22.9.95 and approved with only minor comments. The 
1997 work programme was reviewed by the EEA Management Board on 
12.12.96. In this case the Management Board requested Eurostat to modify its 
plans for publication of carbon dioxide emissions estimates (see 7.6) and 
Eurostat has agreed to this modification. 
• Eurostat is an active participant in the process by which the EEA's work 
programmes are discussed with the Commission and the Member States. Key 
elements in this process are the regular meetings of the EEA National Focal 
Points/EIONET10 working group, and the formal opinion on the EEA's annual 
work programme which the Commission adopts each year. 
The overall effect of this coordination is that to date there has been very little 
duplication either of data collection or of methodological development between 
Eurostat and the EEA. In some fields, on the contrary, both orgamzations have 
taken advantage of each other's available data and expertise,.so that progress is 
accelerated; however, further work is needed to maintain this complementarity, 
and, in particular, to ensure that the EEA and the European Topic Centres do not 
initiate new data collection exercises in areas which are already covered by 
Community statistics. 
9 Council Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 of 7 May 1990 on the establishment of the European 
Environment Agency and the European environment information and observation network. 
OJ No L120, 11.5.1990, pl. 
10 EIONET: Environment INformation and Observation NETwork. 
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12. EVALUATION OF THE PROGRAMME 
A wide range of the environment statistics specified in this Decision are available in 
many Member States, and are regularly transmitted to Eurostat and made available 
to policy-makers and other users. In addition, the necessary standards and 
frameworks now exist for harmonization both of these data and, in principle, of 
other data which are not yet regularly transmitted to Eurostat. In certain of the 
most important cases where regular transmission of harmonized data has not yet 
been achieved, actions are under way to achieve this (notably the proposed Council 
Regulation on waste statistics). To this'extent, the development programme under 
the present Decision has achieved the results intended. 
Difficulties remain and should be analyzed. First, the human and financial resources 
available for new statistics in Member States are always limited. The resources 
allocated to environment statistics have increased in some Member States during 
the past five years. However, the departments responsible for environment 
statistics in most Member States are still small in relation to the workload which 
would be imposed by regular collection of the full range of information which is 
needed, whether for national policy-makers, for Community statistics or for the 
projects of the European Environment Agency. 
Second, the new conceptual frameworks which are now being developed and 
tested (see point 8) will tend to result in a need for more detailed data, for example 
with a more detailed breakdown by economic branch (see 9.2). In some cases the 
required data already exist in Member States, but in other cases new data 
collection is needed. 
A related issue is that where detailed new statistics have been submitted to 
Eurostat in the context of pilot projects under the present Decision, a significant 
further effort is required to examine and integrate these statistics and to draw 
conclusions in the form of proposals for regular data collection. The limiting factor 
in this process is often the scarcity of staff with the necessary technical expertise. 
Finally, there do remain significant areas in which further development work is 
needed to establish harmonized methods and reach agreement with Member States 
on regular transmission of statistics. Such areas include, inter alia: 
• economic and physical data needed for policy-relevant environmental indicators, 
• including indicators of sustainable development, for transport, agriculture, and 
tourism, 
• physical data on non-agricultural land use and on urban areas, 
• physical data on the production and use of hazardous or scarce substances, 
• economic and physical data needed to complete the planned natural resource 
accounts. 
There is considerable scope for exploiting data from administrative sources, but 
additional work is needed to adapt and harmonize these data for statistical 
purposes. In addition, there is scope for adding more environmental data collection 
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to surveys in the fields of industry; agricultures, energy and transport. Progress in 
this direction has been slower than expected, because of pressure not to increase 
the complexity of surveys and the consequent burden on respondents, especially 
enterprises. 
There is also scope for improved linkages between environmental legislation and 
statistical data collection. The reporting requirements attached to existing 
environmental legislation cannot, in the majority of cases, be used to generate 
regular flows of harmonized statistical data. However, in more recent legal texts 
(such as the IPPC Directive, the proposed Landfill Directive and the proposed 
Framework Directive on Water Policy), more attention is being given to the need 
for such regular data flows and to related statistical harmonization issues. 
Overall, the Commission considers that the results obtained under the four-year 
programme have been good, considering the complexity of the methodological 
developments required by the various work areas and the continuing shortage of 
resources in the competent services in Member States. However, it is clearly 
desirable both to continue the methodological work, as outlined above, while 
placing new emphasis on the steps needed to achieve a regular flow of data in the 
areas where extensive methodological work has been completed. The Commission 
therefore considers it appropriate to propose an extension to the four-year 
programme under the present Decision; such a proposal will be prepared before the 
end of 1997. 
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TABLE 1: POLICY FIELDS FOR THE PRESSURE INDICES PROJECT 
Climate change 
Ozone layer depletion 
Loss of biodiversity 
Resource depletion 
Dispersion of toxics 
Waste 
Air pollution 
Marine environment and coastal zones 
Water pollution and water resources 
Urban problems, noise and odours 
TABLE 2: ACTIONS CLASSIFIED BY TYPE OF DATA 
Type of data 
Work areas Production Output and Use of natural Public and 
processes, handling of resources private 
emissions waste expenditures 
Extraction and consumption + 
of raw materials 
Production and 
consumption of agricultural 
an 1 industrial products 
Energy production and 
consumption 
Construction and settlement 
Leisure and tourism 
Transport 
Population growth, 
household and social 
welfare 
Public services 
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TABLE 3: ACTIONS CLASSIFIED BY TYPE OF ACTION 
Type of Action 
Work areas Methodological Practical studies Pilot surveys 
and conceptual 
studies Data collection Dissemination 
Extraction and consumption + 
of raw materials 
Production and 
consumption of agricultural 
and industrial products 
Energy production and 
consumption 
Construction and settlement + 
Leisure and tourism 
Transport 
Population growth, 
household and social 
welfare 
Public services 
Development of + 
frameworks for integrating 
economic and 
environmental data 
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TABLE 4: LIST OF PUBLICATIONS 1994 - MID 1997 
Compendium Kompendium Compendium 
1997 Environment statistics 1996 Umweltstatistik 1996 Statistiques de l'environnement 
1996 
Special compendium! Sonderkompendiums Compendium! spéciaux 
1995 
1997 Europe's environment statistical 
compendium for the Dobris 
assessment 
Indicators of sustainable 
development: a pilot set following 
the methodology of the UN-CSD Indikatoren fQr Nachhaltige 
Entwicklung: eine Pilotstudle 
gemSO der Méthodologie der 
KNE-VN Indicateurs de développement 
durable: une étude pilote selon la 
méthodologie de la CDD-NU 
Domain-specific publications Spezielle Verôffentlichungen Publications liées aux domaines 
spécifiques . 
1994 
1996 
1997 SERIEE 1994 version 
Environmental protection 
expenditure: data collection 
methods in the public sector and 
industry 
The distribution of nitrogen inputs 
to agriculture 
Carbon dioxide emissions from 
fossil fuels 1985-1993 
EUR 12 Trade in valuable waste 
materials Verteilung des Stickstoffeintrags in 
den Boden durch die 
Landwirtschaft 
Kohlendioxidemissionen von 
fossilen Brenstoffen 1985-1993 * 
Abfallstoffe mit Handelswert im 
Auusenhandel der EUR 12 La répartition des apports d'azote 
dans l'agriculture 
Emissions de dioxide de carbone 
des combustibles fossiles 1985-
1993 
Echanges de déchets à valeur 
commerciale de l'EUR 12 
Statistics in Focus Statistik kurzgefasst Statistiques en bref 
1995 
1996 Road transport and the 
environment in the EU 
Overview of pesticide data in the 
EU 
Road transport and the 
environment - energy and fiscal 
aspects Straflenverkehr und Umwelt in der 
EU 
Ûberblick ûber die Pestiziddaten in 
der EU 
Straflenverkehr und Umwelt -
Energie- und Steueraspekte Les transports routiers et 
l'environnement dans 1TJE 
Aperçu sur les données de 
pesticides dans LUE 
Transport routier et environnement 
. aspects énergétiques et fiscaux 
Eurostat general statistics Eurostat allgemeine Statistik Eurostat statistiques générales 
Basic statistics of the Community 
Europe in figures 
Social portrait of Europe 
Eurostat yearbook Statistische Grundzahlen der 
Gemeinschaft 
Europa in Zahlen 
Sozialportrait Europas 
Eurostat Jahrbuch Statistiques de base de la 
Communauté 
Europe en chiffres 
Portrait social d'Europe 
Annuaire Eurostat 
>=translation not yet available/Obersetzung noch nicht vorhanden/traduction pas encore disponible 
21 
TABLE 5: BUDGET RESOURCES 1994-1997 
Commitments (1000 ECU) 
1994 1995 1996 1997 TOTAL 
Planned Council Decision 
Financial statement 1500 2200 2800 2500 9000 
Outcome B5-6 Statistics (Note 1) 
B4-3 Environment (Note 2) 
Other budget lines 
TOTAL Outcome 1595 
418 
2013 1150 
633 
312 
2095 1300 
2000 
150 
3450 1000 
1500 
300 
2800 5045 
4551 
762 
10358 
Notes: 
1. Licludes relevant expenditure under Statistical Programme themes 88,89 (environment) and 29 (national accounts). The budget 
allocated to environmental accounts under Theme 29 is about 200 KECU per year from 1995 onwards. 
2. From 1996 onwards includes extra resources allocated following the Communication on environmental indicators and green 
national accounting. 
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ISSN 0254-1475 
COM(97) 430 final 
DOCUMENTS 
EN 17 14 
Catalogue number : CB-CO-97-434-EN-C 
ISBN 92-78-23854-6 
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