COMMON POSITION (EC) No 58/98 adopted by the Council on 20 July 1998 with a view to adopting Regulation (EC) No . . ./98, of . . . amending Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 on the establishment of the European Environment Agency and the European Environment Information and Observation Network (98/C 364/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 130s(1) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (2),

Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions (3),

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189c of the Treaty (4),

Whereas Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 (5) established the European Environment Agency and the European environment information and observation network; whereas Article 20 of the Regulation made provision for a decision by Council on whether to add further tasks to the Agency, based on a report with appropriate proposals from the Commission, no later than two years after the entry into force of the Regulation; whereas Article 21 stipulated that the Regulation would enter into force on the day following that on which the competent authorities decided on the seat of the Agency, and whereas this decision was taken on 29 October 1993;

Whereas the Commission in its Communication COM(95) 325 final gave its reason why the report provided for in Article 20 should be postponed, and on 9 November 1995 the Council considered that any decision on further tasks for the European Environment Agency would be premature before the Agency had been fully operational for two years and before its network had been completely established;

Whereas the European Environment Agency has made good progress in achieving its objectives and completing its tasks, including the establishment of the European environment information and observation network;

Whereas the tasks and areas to address are wide and require both consolidation of the work already undertaken and further effort;

Whereas the Agency has a primary role as provider of objective, reliable and comparable information on the environment;

Whereas any new tasks allocated to the Agency should complement and enhance its primary role;

Whereas the Translation Centre for bodies of the European Union has the task of translating documents of the European Environment Agency, in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 2965/94 (6);

Whereas the organisation and structure of the Agency need to be improved and clarified, in line with the experience of its first years of operation;

Whereas the management board of the Agency should take into account the need to reflect the different geographic circumstances in the Community through an appropriate distribution of the topic centres;

Whereas the Agency may cooperate with institutions in third countries in order to obtain data necessary for the completion of the work-programme;

Whereas future reviews of the Agency's performance and tasks should coincide with the cycle of its five-yearly multiannual work-programme;

Whereas Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 should accordingly be amended,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 shall be amended as follows:

1. In Article 1(2) the initial part shall be replaced by the following:

'2. To achieve the aims of environmental protection and improvement laid down by the Treaty and by successive Community action programmes on the environment, as well as of sustainable development, the objective shall be to provide the Community and the Member States with`;

2. Article 2, shall be amended as follows:

(a) points (ii), (iii) and (vi) shall be replaced by the following:

'(ii) - to provide the Community and the Member States with the objective information necessary for framing and implementing sound and effective environmental policies; to that end, in particular to provide the Commission with the information that it needs to be able to carry out successfully its tasks of identifying, preparing and evaluating measures and legislation in the field of the environment,

- to assist the monitoring of environmental measures through appropriate support for reporting requirements (including through involvement in the development of questionnaires, the processing of reports from Member States and the distribution of results), in accordance with its multiannual work-programme and with the aim of coordinating reporting,

- to advise individual Member States, upon their request and where this is consistent with the Agency's annual work-programme, on the development, establishment and expansion of their systems for the monitoring of environmental measures, provided such activities do not endanger the fulfilment of the other tasks established by this Article. Such advice may also include peer reviews by experts at the specific request of Member States;

(iii) to record, collate and assess data on the state of the environment, to draw up expert reports on the quality, sensitivity and pressures on the environment within the territory of the Community, to provide uniform assessment criteria for environmental data to be applied in all Member States, to develop further a reference centre of information on the environment. The Commission shall use this information in its task of ensuring the implementation of Community legislation on the environment;`

'(vi) to publish a report on the state of, trends in and prospects for the environment every five years, supplemented by indicator reports focusing upon specific issues;`

(b) the following points shall be added:

'(xi) to ensure the broad dissemination of environmental information, in particular on the state of the environment, to the general public and, to this end, to promote the use of new telematics technology for this purpose;

(xii) to support the Commission in the process of exchange of information on the development of Environmental Assessment methodologies and best practice;

(xiii) to assist the Commission in the diffusion of information on the results of relevant environmental research and in a form which can best assist policy development.`;

3. Article 3 shall be amended as follows:

(a) in paragraph 1 the following words shall be added, starting on a new line:

'including placing these in the context of sustainable development.`;

(b) in paragraph 2:

(i) in the second subparagraph the eighth indent shall be replaced by the following:

'- coastal and marine protection.`;

(ii) the fifth subparagraph shall be deleted;

(c) the following paragraph shall be added:

'3. The Agency may also cooperate in the exchange of information with other bodies, including with the IMPEL network.

In its activities the Agency shall avoid duplicating the existing activities of other institutions and bodies.`;

4. Article 4 shall be amended as follows:

(a) in paragraph 2 the following subparagraph shall be added:

'Member States shall keep the Agency informed of the main component elements of their national environment information networks. Member States shall, as appropriate, cooperate with the Agency and contribute to the work of the European environment information and observation network in accordance with the work programme of the Agency by collecting, collating and analysing data nationwide. Member States may also join to cooperate in these activities at a transnational level.`;

(b) in paragraph 4, in the second sentence, the following terms 'in a precise geographical area` shall be deleted;

(c) in paragraph 5 the second subparagraph shall be replaced by the following:

'The topic centres shall be designated by the management board as defined in Article 8(1), for a period not exceeding the duration of each multiannual work programme as referred to in Article 8(4). Each designation may, however, be renewed.`;

5. Article 8 shall be amended as follows:

(a) in paragraph 1 the first subparagraph shall be replaced by the following:

'1. The Agency shall have a management board consisting of one representative of each Member State and two representatives of the Commission. In addition, there may be one representative of each other country which participates in the Agency, in accordance with the relevant provisions.`;

(b) in paragraph 2 the following subparagraph shall be added:

'The management board shall elect a bureau to which it may delegate executive decisions, according to the rules that it shall adopt.`;

(c) paragraphs 3 and 4 shall be replaced by the following:

'3. Decisions of the management board shall require for their adoption a two-thirds majority of the members of the board.

4. The management board shall adopt a multiannual work-programme based on the priority areas referred to in Article 3(2), using as its basis a draft submitted by the Executive Director referred to in Article 9, after consulting the scientific committee, referred to in Article 10, and receiving the Commission's opinion. The multiannual work-programme shall, without prejudice to the annual Community budgetary procedure, include a multiannual budget estimate.`;

(d) in paragraph 6, in the first sentence, the phrase 'By 31 January each year . . .` shall be replaced by 'By 31 March each year . . .`;

6. Article 9(1) shall be amended as follows:

(a) the fifth indent shall be replaced by the following:

'- for all staff matters, for the performance of the tasks referred to in Article 8(4) and (5).`;

(b) the sixth indent shall be deleted;

7. Article 10(2) shall be replaced by the following:

'2. The scientific committee shall be made up of members particularly qualified in the field of the environment, designated by the management board for a term of four years renewable once, taking into account, inter alia, the scientific areas which need to be represented in the committee in order to assist the Agency in its areas of activity. Is shall function as determined by the rules of procedure provided for in Article 8(2).`;

8. Article 15 shall be amended as follows:

(a) a new paragraph shall be inserted as follows:

'2a. The Agency may cooperate in areas of common interest with those institutions in countries which are not members of the European Communities which can provide data, information and expertise, methodologies of data collection, analysis and assessment which are of mutual interest and which are necessary for the successful completion of the Agency's work.`;

(b) paragraph 3 shall be replaced by the following:

'3. The cooperation referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 2a must in particular take account of the need to avoid any duplication of effort.`;

9. In the Annex, Part B, point 1 shall be replaced by the following:

'1. The Agency will use, as far as possible, information collected via the official Community statistical services. These result from the work of Eurostat and the national statistical services in collecting, validating and disseminating social and economic statistics, including national accounts and related information. In particular, the Agency will make use of work done by Eurostat and the national statistical offices under Council Decision 94/808/EC (*), covering statistics on (a) human activities resulting in pressure on the environment and (b) societal and economic responses to such pressures.

(*) Council Decision 94/808/EEC of 15 December 1994 adopting a four-year development programme (1994-1997) relating to the environmental component of Community statistics (OJ L 328, 20.12.1994, p. 58).`

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at . . .

For the Council

The President

(1) OJ C 255, 20.8.1997, p. 9, and OJ C 123, 22.4.1998, p. 6.

(2) OJ C 73, 9.3.1998, p. 103.

(3) OJ C 180, 11.6.1998, p. 32.

(4) Opinion of the European Parliament of 18 February 1998 (OJ C 80, 16.3.1998), Council Decision of 20 July 1998 and Decision of the European Parliament of . . . (not yet published in the Official Journal).

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

(6) OJ L 314, 7.12.1994, p. 1. Regulation as amended by Regulation (EC) No 2610/95 (OJ L 268, 10.11.1995, p. 1).

STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL'S REASONS

I. INTRODUCTION

1. On 16 June 1997 the Commission submitted to Council a proposal for a Council Regulation 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. The legal basis is Article 130s(1) of the EC Treaty.

2. The European Parliament delivered its opinion at first reading on 18 February 1998.

3. The Economic and Social Committee delivered its opinion on 28 January 1998.

4. The Commission submitted to Council an amended proposal on 25 March 1998.

5. The Council adopted a common position on 20 July 1998, in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189c of the EC Treaty.

II. OBJECTIVE

The common position aims at amending Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90, on the basis of the Commission's amended proposal, by strengthening the role of the European Environment Agency, especially with regard to its tasks in the areas of implementation of Community environmental law and dissemination of environmental information, without however broadening the scope of its action. This approach is also in line with the evaluation of the first five years of operation of the Agency which accompanied the Commission's proposal.

III. ANALYSIS OF THE COMMON POSITION

General comments

The Council has endorsed the general approach on the European Environment Agency contained in the Commission's proposal, consistently with the general objective set out under section II above.

The common position incorporates in whole or in part most of the European Parliament's amendments that the Commission had accepted in its amended proposal. One additional amendment, rejected by the Commission for legal technical reasons, was incorporated in the common position.

The Council did not retain in its common position the European Parliament Amendment No 2, which had been only partially included in the Commission's amended proposal, and Amendments No 7 and No 8, which were not included in the Commission's amended proposal.

Detailed comments on specific points, covering article by article the major changes, are given below.

Detailed comments

Preamble

In addition to the necessary modifications to the text of the Preamble to make it consistent with the content of the common position the following main changes are signalled:

- the redrafting of the first two 'whereas` clauses to ensure full consistency with the relevant provisions of Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90,

- the addition of two new 'whereas` clauses (No 7 and No 9) concerning, respectively, the translation of documents of the EEA, attributed to the Translation Centre for bodies of the European Union, and the distribution of the 'topic centres` to be done by the Agency's management board so as to reflect the different geographic circumstances in the Community.

Article 1

The wording of this Article, setting out the objective of the Regulation, has been updated with a reference to sustainable development (paragraph 2).

Article 2

This Article lists and describes the tasks of the Agency. Compared to Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 further tasks have been added to the enumeration with a view to strengthening the role of the Agency, especially with regard to the provision and dissemination of information on the environment; furthermore, existing tasks have been clarified. The need to carry out these tasks in accordance with the Agency's multi-annual work-programme has been stressed.

The following are the main alterations made by the Council to the Commission's proposal:

- point (ii) has been reformulated and reorganised so as to describe more clearly the different tasks of the Agency. In the task of assisting the monitoring of environmental measures through support in reporting requirements, the aim of coordinating reporting has been added; the advisory role for the Agency vis-a-vis individual Member States on the 'development, establishment and expansion of their systems for the monitoring of environmental measures` has been retained but only upon their request, and provided that these activities are consistent with the Agency's annual work programme and do not endanger the fulfilment of other Agency's tasks; in this context 'peer review` by experts is allowed, but only at the specific request of Member States;

- point (iii) has been amended. The Council has not retained the wording in the Commission's proposal, resulting in part from an amendment of the European Parliament. More specifically, the concept of a 'repository of information on the environment`, including a data register, has been replaced by the Council with the broader term of 'reference centre for information on the environment`;

- in point (vi), the Council has estimated useful on the one hand to specify that the indicator reports should focus upon specific issues, and on the other, not to fix the frequency with which such reports should be prepared so as to give the Agency greater flexibility in this respect;

- the last three points, i.e. (xi), (xii) and (xiii), describe further tasks of the Agency introduced by the Commission's proposal. The major amendments in the common position are as follows:

(xi) the term 'reliable` has been considered redundant in this context and therefore suppressed; the explicit obligation to make this information available in all official Community languages has not been retained in the text of the common position;

(xii) the reformulation of this task with regard to EIA aims at not creating ambiguities concerning the role of the Agency in this area;

(xiii) the redrafting aims here at clarifying the role of environmental research vis-a-vis policy-making.

Article 3

This Article, concerning the principal areas of activity of the Agency, has been modified so as to include:

- a broader reference to the 'present and foreseeable` state of the evironment and to 'sustainable development` (in paragraph 1),

- a broader reference to 'marine` and not only coastal protection (paragraph 2),

- a reference to the possible cooperation between the Agency and 'other bodies, including the IMPEL network`, for the purpose of exchanging information (new paragraph 3).

This last addition is based on an amendment proposed by the European Parliament and that the Commission, although not contrary in principle, had rejected on legal technical grounds.

Article 4

This Article concerns the information network established by Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90, its composition and functioning, including the designation and operation of the topic centres. The common position retains the Commission's proposal of applying the normal voting rule of two-thirds majority also to the designation of the topic centres (with corresponding amendment in Article 8). Main modifications to the Commission's proposal include the following:

- aspects and modalities of cooperation between the Agency and the Member States in the collection, collation and analysis of environment information 'nationwide` (paragraph 2, second sub-paragraph): the different wording is motivated by the fact that the Council has not estimated appropriate to establish a legal obligation for Member States and by the need to take account of the different territorial organisation within the various Member States which also affects the way in which data are provided and analysed. The possibility for Member States to join to cooperate in these activities at a 'transnational level` was also estimated useful and included;

- suppression of the reference to a 'precise geographical area` (paragraph 4, second sentence).

Article 8

The major changes made by the Council to the Commission's proposal, with the aim of improving the functioning of the Agency, include:

- a partial reformulation of paragraph 1, referring in the Commission's proposal to the participation of EEA/EFTA States in the Agency's management board. The Council has preferred a more generic formulation, which is consistent with the formulations normally used in Community acts in these cases and refers to the 'relevant provisions`, not prejudging n this way possible future evolutions;

- a redrafting of paragraph 2 as far as the way of operating of the 'bureau` is concerned: delegation of executive decisions by the management board is allowed, but 'according to the rules that it shall adopt`;

- the inclusion of a 'multiannual budget estimate` (paragraph 4), rather than 'proposal`, in the multiannual work-programme.

Article 10

Paragraph 2 was modified by the Council with regard to the composition of the scientific committee which assists the management board, with the aim of ensuring that the scientific expertise in the committee reflect the areas of activity of the Agency and therefore that the scientific committee can better support the management board in its task.

Article 15

The last paragraph of this Article was readjusted to cover all forms of cooperation envisaged (including the new paragraph 2a) and avoid duplication of efforts.

Article 20

Apart from the re-ordering of the paragraphs, this Article was slightly redrafted on the basis of an amendment of the European Parliament, also accepted by the Commission: the text as redrafted by the Council provides now for a Council's review of the progress of and tasks undertaken by the Agency 'in relation to the Community's overall policy on the environment`.

Annex

A minor modification has been made in 'Section B, point 1, first sentence`, which refers now to the Community statistical 'services`.

The Commission has agreed to the amendments made by the Council.