Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the 'Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) amending 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` (98/C 180/05)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

having regard to the proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) amending 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 ();

having regard to the Commission's decision of 17 June 1997 to consult the Committee of the Regions on this matter in accordance with Article 198c, first paragraph, of the Treaty establishing the European Community;

having regard to the decision of its Bureau on 11 June 1997 to assign the preparation of the opinion to Commission 5 for Land-use Planning, Environment, Energy;

having regard to the draft opinion (CdR 300/97 rev.) adopted by Commission 5 on 13 October 1997 (rapporteur: Mr J. Asselborn),

adopted the following opinion at its 22nd plenary session on 12 and 13 March 1998 (meeting of 12 March).

1. Introduction

1.1. The agency was created by Regulation EEC 1210/90 () of 7 May 1990.

1.2. It is only since 1993 that the Agency, whose headquarters are in Copenhagen, has become operational with an annual budget of ECU 16,7 million and a staff of about 60.

1.3. The Agency is open to the countries of the EU and EFTA (Norway-Iceland-Liechtenstein). Its main task is to provide national and European decision-makers with comparable and reliable data on the environment and to establish a European network on environmental information (EIONET).

2. General comments

2.1. Present mandate

2.1.1. The European Environment Agency has made a positive start. The main achievements of its early years are:

- publication of reports on the state of the environment in 1995, of 'Europe's Environment - the Dobris Assessment` and of the report contributing to the Review of the 5th Environment Action Programme;

- establishment of a basic network ('EIONET`) across the Member States for gathering environmental information;

- establishment of the first eight European Topic Centres and the publication of the first results of their work;

- completion of the CORINAIR 90 and 94 reports on air emissions;

- publication of the reports on the Arctic environment, health and environment, climate change, eco-taxes, ozone episodes, and of European Topic Centre reports;

- dissemination of products and information.

2.1.2. Bearing in mind that the Agency did not start work until 1993 and then with only a limited staff, its performance to date is promising. However, it is apparent that it is still at the beginning of its work in terms of mobilizing the national networks so as to be able to provide information on the various environmental areas.

2.2. New tasks

The draft amending regulation provides for a number of new tasks to be assigned to the Agency, more specifically:

- support for the application of Community environmental legislation;

- setting criteria for eco-labelling;

- exchange of information on environmentally friendly technologies;

- evaluation of environmental impact assessment.

3. Specific comments

3.1. Bearing in mind that the Agency has only a limited budget and staff, any new tasks will have an impact on both.

3.2. An analysis of how the Agency has executed its present mandate shows that progress has been made in its eight basic areas of activity, but that the results vary considerably from one area to another and that a certain amount of work still needs to be done to complete its present mandate in full.

3.3. In view of the aforementioned constraints, new tasks should only be assigned to the Agency if they are part of or an extension of its current mandate, such as:

- support for implementation;

- environmental impact assessment and strategic assessment of the environment;

- the creation of a European Information Reference Centre on the environment;

- promoting the World Wide Web;

- disseminating information on environmental research which has policy relevance.

3.4. All duplication of work with existing institutions should be avoided.

3.5. The amendment regarding the obligation to provide national data for the EIONET network is to be welcomed, but should be extended to data gathered at regional level which is available in aggregated form on data carriers. The region is the base unit which lends itself best to a comparison of the state of the environment in Europe.

3.6. The EIONET network must not be confined to the Agency and national focal points, but should be open to regional and local authorities and ideally to the general public.

3.7. As environmental concerns transcend national borders, the Agency should be open to third countries (new Article 19).

The Agency must be able to exchange data with these countries on matters of common interest.

4. Conclusions

The Committee of the Regions

4.1. approves:

- extending the Agency's mandate to new tasks as agreed between the Commission and the Agency's management board;

- opening up the EIONET network to third countries on matters of common interest;

- opening up the network to the general public through new information technologies;

4.2. calls for:

4.2.1. the regions to be integrated into the network as the base unit for assessing the state of the environment in Europe (this aspect should be mentioned explicitly in the text of the new regulation);

4.2.2. local and regional authorities to be involved in the EIONET through the national focal points;

4.2.3. the environmental data produced by the Agency to be developed in cooperation with local and regional authority agencies and then made available in summary form;

4.2.4. the obligation for local and regional authorities to submit reports to the Agency to be defined in such a way that the cost of these reports does not outweigh their usefulness; modern information technologies should preferably be used for this and only that data which is available in aggregated form on data carriers should be provided;

4.2.5. the COR to be involved in the work of the Agency;

4.2.6. the regional and local authorities to have access to the Agency's information networks;

4.2.7. the Agency to work in close cooperation with third countries since pollution problems are a cross-border matter;

4.2.8. the EIONET network to be open to local and regional authorities;

4.2.9. local and regional authorities to be helped to promote sustainable development.

Brussels, 12 March 1998.

The Chairman of the Committee of the Regions

Manfred DAMMEYER

() COM(97) 282 final - 97/0168 SYN - OJ C 255, 20.8.1997, p. 9.

() OJ L 120, 11.5.1990, p. 1.