Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee 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'
Date: 1997-12-11
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: European Environment Agency, environmental monitoring, environmental protection, information network, information system

9.3.98

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 73/103

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee 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 73/25)

On 11 July 1997 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under
Article 130s of the Treaty establishing the European Union, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Protection of the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Affairs, which
was responsible for preparing the Committee’s work on the subject, adopted its opinion on
4 November 1997. The rapporteur was Mrs Sa´nchez Miguel.

At its 350th plenary session (meeting of 11 December 1997) the Economic and Social Committee
adopted the following opinion by 93 votes to one.

1.

Introduction

evaluates

The Commission document

the
1.1.
achievements of the European Environment Agency in
the light of the objectives laid down when the Agency
was first set up (1), concentrating chiefly on its function
of gathering and disseminating information. In so doing
it underlines the importance of the Agency’s publication
in 1995 of two reports on the state of the environment:
the ‘Dobris Assessment’ and the report contributing to
the ‘Review of
the 5th Environment Action Pro-
gramme’ (2).

1.1.1. We would also emphasize the Agency’s role in
establishing the EIONET information network (3) for
gathering environmental information across the Mem-
ber States. This has been accompanied by the establish-
ment of nine European Topic Centres (ETCs) (4) provid-
ing, inter alia, objective data for the network.

As part of this information function, the Agency
1.2.
has also promoted the inclusion of European environ-
mental data in international environment monitoring
programmes, with concrete results in the form of
agreements with WHO, UNEP and UNECE (5).

1.3.
Another of the tasks launched by the Agency —
and one that has achieved important practical success
in its earliest stage — has been to stimulate the
development of environmental forecasting techniques
and methods of assessing the cost of damage to the
environment and the costs of environmental policies
themselves.

(1) Regulation (EEC) of the Council No 1210/1990, OJ L 120,

11.5.1990 — ESC Opinion, OJ C 56, 7.3.1990.

(2) OJ C 140, 11.5.1996.
(3) European Environment Information and Observation Net-

work.

(4) ETCs: atmospheric emissions, air quality, catalogue of
databases, inland waters, land cover, marine environment,
nature conservation, soil quality and waste management.
(5) World Health Organization, United Nations Environment
Programme, United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe.

1.4.
The Commission’s overall assessment is that the
Agency has made significant progress, especially with
regard to the publication of reports, but is still at the
teething stage insofar as the operation of national
networks providing information about different environ-
mental areas is concerned.

In view of this performance the Commission
1.5.
considers that the Agency should not be given new tasks
at the moment and feels that its terms of reference
should only be reviewed after the evaluation of its
activities in 2003.

2. Relations between the ESC and the Agency

2.1.
The Committee has already stressed the urgent
need to create a transnational Environmental Agency,
believing that it represents a quantum leap compared
with the coordination mechanisms set up in the 1980s
to provide European-level information on the state of
the environment. In its earlier opinion on the creation
of the Agency (6), the ESC underlined the importance of
the contribution such an Agency could make to aligning
national instruments and operational methods and to
strengthening international cooperation in the field of
environmental protection, particularly in respect of the
role the European Union could play in international
fora and in providing technical support and advice to
the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and to the
developing countries.

2.2.
In this same opinion the Committee called for
assurances that all the various socio-economic interests
would be actively involved, saying that it wanted to see
the Agency not only operating under the aegis of the
Commission but also responding to the needs of Member
States and especially ordinary citizens. To this end,
thought should be given to appropriate forms of cooper-
ation with non-governmental bodies operating in the
environmental sector and with technical and scientific
institutions at both national and European level.

(6) OJ C 56, 7.3.1990.

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2.2.1.
The need to guarantee such involvement is of
paramount importance in the context of the Vth Action
Programme on the Environment which underlines the
shared responsibility of all players.

2.3.
Delays in getting the Agency off the ground have
been repeatedly criticized by the ESC, most notably in
1992 when commenting on the programme of sustainable
development (1).

The Committee has maintained regular contacts
2.4.
with the Agency since its launch in Copenhagen,
participating in its initiatives, making use of the infor-
mation and reports it has provided, and drawing on the
help of its experts on specific subjects, particularly those
relating to opinions being drawn up in the fields of
water and waste.

2.5. On such occasions, as well as in section dis-
cussions (2) with the Agency’s Director, members of the
Committee have never failed to emphasize the need to
broaden the activities of the Agency and involve different
players and ordinary citizens more closely.

2.6. More recently, when drawing up the opinion on
eco-labels, the ESC developed a fruitful dialogue with
the Agency on the possibility of the latter providing
support for the scheme(3), particularly by assembling
information necessary for an analysis of the life-cycle of
products. The ESC therefore hopes that the Agency will
be actively involved in the eco-label scheme although it
rules out any administrative role for the Agency on the
grounds that this is not one of its inherent functions.

2.7.
Last but not least, the information about the
Agency on the Internet, although restricted to the English
language, has proved to be a useful benchmark in
drawing up opinions and holding debates about environ-
mental protection.

3. General comments

3.1.
In view of the Agency’s positive contribution,
as referred to above, and the permanent need for
increasingly accurate and standardized information on
the state of the environment in Europe, the Committee
feels that the Commission’s conclusion spelt out in point
4 of the introduction and stating that ‘it would not be
appropriate to add major new tasks at this stage in its
development’
is excessively conservative and seems
to be governed largely by financial considerations,
especially since point 5 goes on to say that ‘no new
financial resources will be made available’.

(1) Point 7.4.2, OJ C 287, 4.11.1992.
(2) Appendix to the minutes of the 176th meeting of the
Section for Protection of the Environment, Public Health
and Consumer Affairs, held on 3 March 1995.

(3) Point 3.3.1.10, OJ C 296, 29.9.1997.

3.1.1. What is needed is an assessment which takes
into consideration the added value which can be provided
by the Agency once the initial start-up phase has
been completed, especially in terms of harmonizing
data-collection methods and bringing about synergistic
effects between the Member States within the context
of thematic networks, not to speak of its work in
evaluating environmental incidents.

3.1.2.
Any evaluation of the Agency’s performance
must also take account of the short period in which the
Agency has been in operation and of the resources made
available to it. The reports published to date, along with
the databases, are all of great value to the different
Community organizations and to economic and social
interest groups. Furthermore, the Agency’s staff has
always proved ready and willing to cooperate and to
provide information about the Agency’s tasks to any
organizations wishing to obtain such information, as
the ESC has itself experienced on several occasions.

3.2.
The ESC approves the activities of the Agency
and agrees that its tasks should be consolidated along
the lines set out by the Commission. The ESC, however,
also hopes that the Agency’s work on gathering and
disseminating information will be expanded — and not
only for the benefit of the Commission and the Member
States but for all other community and social interests
in the EU. If information is ultimately fed through to
ordinary citizens, it should be available in the official
languages of the EU, which means releasing the required
funds.

A number of other activities need to be broadened
3.3.
so that a ‘strategic’ evaluation of the environment can
be carried out and the EU’s environmental situation can
be monitored, as called for in the ESC’s opinion on
the Action Programme for integrated groundwater
protection and management (4), and so that the Agency
can more effectively support the European Union in its
involvement in cross-frontier and international organ-
izations specializing in protection of the environment.

3.3.1.
The ESC considers that the Agency should
have a distinct role within this cross-frontier context,
namely that of establishing forms of cooperation with
the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs)
preparing to join the EU so that it is easier for them
to acquire the information needed to update their
environmental legislation. According to the latest Com-
mission studies, this is of fundamental importance for
their integration into the EU.

3.4.
As far as the integration of environmental protec-
tion in other Community policies is concerned, the
Committee considers that the Agency can serve a useful
purpose by giving technical support to all departments
with responsibilities in the environmental field, bearing

(4) OJ C 355, 25.11.1996 — ESC Opinion, OJ C 89, 19.3.1997.

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in mind the revision carried out in Amsterdam of
Article 130, and especially Article 3 which introduces
the concept of making environmental policy an integral
part of all Community policies and actions at both
the planning and implementation stages. Particular
attention should be paid to coordination with DG
XII since the lines of investigation pursued in this
directorate-general are closely linked to environmental
questions and in many cases to draft environmental
legislation. The regulation in question also already
provides for cooperation between the Agency and the
Joint Research Centre. This cooperation should be
consolidated and greater synergies achieved between the
work of the bodies; overlapping activities would have
to be avoided and the flow of information on clean
technologies, and on products stemming from research
carried out in conjunction with industry, would have to
be fully taken advantage of.

3.5. On the other hand, the ESC would emphasize
that no way has yet been found of guaranteeing the
involvement of the EU’s socio-economic organizations
(and particularly NGOs and consumer representatives)
in the Agency. A greater openness on the part of the
Agency towards socio-economic organizations would
hold out the prospect of promising developments in
parallel with the programme on sustainable development
which provides for the involvement of all players active
in environmental protection.

3.6.
In this context the ESC welcomes the recent
initiative to engage in a wider consultation, involving
NGOs operating in the environmental sector, industry,
trade unions, the various Commission Directorates-
General which have environmental responsibilities, the
European Parliament, the Economic and Social Com-
mittee and the Committee of the Regions, on the
Agency’s second work programme, covering the 1999-
2003 period. The Committee recommends that consul-
tations of this type should be formalized on a regular
footing, and should also cover more specific aspects of
the Agency’s work.

4. Examination of the proposed amendments

4.1.
The amendments proposed by the Commission
are of two types: one type deals with the broadening
and consolidation of the information function of the
Agency via amendments to Articles 2 and 4; the other is
concerned with the workings of the Management Board.

4.2. Article 2 — Broadening of the functions of the

Agency

4.2.1.
The Committee by and large considers that the
new functions assigned to the Agency are a move in the
right direction. This is because they strengthen the
Agency’s role in the field of information, particularly
through the proposal laying down requirements govern-
ing the presentation of reports.

4.2.2. Nevertheless, other organizations, e.g.
the
Council, Parliament and ESC, should also have the right
to request information from the Agency. The Committee
likewise considers, in connection with the Agency’s

function of providing support for the collection of
information, that reference should be made in para-
graph (ii) to ‘standard models for gathering information’
as this would be a way of harmonizing the information
Member States are required to submit.

The Committee also feels that non-state organ-
4.2.3.
izations (NGOs, trade unions, consumer organizations,
etc.) should be involved in the new information tasks
assigned to the Agency. Similarly, the organizations
responsible for environmental policy at different levels
of national administration should also have the right to
request information from the agency.

4.2.4.
The new wording of Article 2 (ii) would also
reduce the independence of the Agency by moving away
from the original ‘provide ... the objective information
necessary’ to the proposed ‘provide the objective infor-
mation they require’. The ESC therefore calls for the
original text to be kept.

4.2.5.
The Commission proposes that the phrase ‘to
establish a repository of information on the environment’
be inserted at the beginning of point (iii); such a
repository would be tantamount to setting up a European
information centre. The ESC, repeating here the requests
made time and time again in previous opinions, considers
that this should take the form of a Public Register
accessible to all persons and organizations interested in
environmental information. The Committee therefore
calls for the inclusion of a new point (xiv) in Article 2,
reading as follows: ‘to take responsibility for a register
of information obligatory under environmental laws.’

4.2.6.
The new paragraph (vi) of Article 2 stipulates
that the Agency shall draw up a report on ‘the state of
the environment’ every five years. The ESC urges that
the bracketed words (prospects and trends), be added
after ‘the state of the environment’ to introduce a note
of dynamism to the report. The ESC also considers that
since the environmental situation changes rapidly the
‘annual
indicator reports’ should be linked to the
multiannual report of the Scientific Committee in order
to give them a sound scientific basis.

4.2.7.
The words ‘in its own language’ should be
added after ‘the general public’ in the proposed new
paragraph (xi) of Article 2.

4.2.8.
A reference should also be made to ‘the strategic
or integrated environmental assessment’ in the proposed
new point (xii) of Article 2, in accordance with the
proposed directive on the assessment of the effects of
certain plans and programmes on the environment (1).

4.2.9.
The Committee also calls for the inclusion in
Article 2 of a point (xv) reading as follows: ‘to contribute

(1) OJ C 129, 25.4.1997; OJ C 287, 22.9.1997.

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to the collection of information and the dissemination
of results in cooperation with the European eco-label
scheme.’

Finally, some of the original text of the
4.2.10.
amended Article 20,
i.e. the part referring to the
Agency being ‘associated in the monitoring of the
legis-
implementation of Community environmental
lation, in cooperation with the Commission and existing
competent bodies in the Member States’ should be
incorporated in Article 2.

Committee and the Committee of the Regions. It is
a matter of formalizing forms of cooperation and
consultation which already exist but which need to be
recognized in the regulation governing the Agency.

4.4.2. Nor does the Committee have any objection to
the creation of an executive bureau designed to speed
up and facilitate the work of the management board,
but it would recommend that the membership of such a
bureau be balanced in terms of the interests represented,
including the NGOs.

4.3. Article 4 — Responsibilities of the network

5. Conclusions

4.3.1.
It is important that national networks be fully
and properly established and that they feed through the
data which enables Member States to fulfil their task of
providing the Agency with information. The proposal
to add a second sub-paragraph to paragraph 2 of
Article 4 is therefore welcomed in that it tightens the
obligation on Member States to provide the necessary
information.

4.3.2.
The ESC is aware that in some cases national
networks have not yet been fully developed, which
creates difficulties in trying to establish an overall
framework for the provision of information. It would
therefore help if the Agency could draw attention to
these deficiencies by means of an inventory of networks
so that the Commission and Member States in question
could look at ways of overcoming the problem. Financial
support for this operation could come from the Cohesion
Fund.

4.4. Article 8 — Management Board

4.4.1.
The ESC is favourably disposed to the idea of
allowing European Economic Area representatives to sit
on the Management Board. Nevertheless, in line with
its previous opinion on the Agency (1), it calls for Article 8
to include a reference to the need to consult the various
socio-economic actors on the multiannual programme
(paragraph 4), for ways to be found to ensure that such
consultation takes place on a regular basis, if possible
including in the Management Board an expert rep-
resenting the NGOs working in the environmental
sector, and for the annual report (paragraph 6) to
be officially forwarded to the Economic and Social

(1) OJ C 56, 7.3.1990.

Brussels, 11 December 1997.

5.1.
Looking at the points made above and taking into
consideration the proposed changes, we can conclude in
general that the Agency will become more independent
and efficient and this in turn will make it an instrument
attuned to the new environmental policy direction
worked out in Amsterdam.

If the work of the Agency is to be brought
5.1.1.
closer to all citizens of the EU, the Agency will first have
to be broadened to ensure that organizations reflecting
citizens’ interests are represented on it, whilst efforts
will also have to be made to establish a balance on the
Management Board. Secondly, its publications will have
to become more accessible by appearing in all the
languages of the Community, the funding being shared
between public and private bodies in each Member
State.

5.1.2.
It is necessary to make the Agency a vehicle
for the integration of all policies with environmental
repercussions and to this end it needs to work together
not only with the Commission, but also with all bodies
active in the environment. Its advisory function can
similarly be put to use with the enlargement of the EU
in mind.

5.1.3.
As far as the Agency’s functions are concerned,
we would urge that it be given responsibilities for
carrying out a ‘strategic or integrated environmental
assessment’ and for performing the task, in conjunction
with the Commission, of monitoring implementation of
the Community’s environmental legislation.

5.2.
All this will only be possible if the Agency
receives funding commensurate with its functions. We
should therefore look into the possibility of the Agency
being given its own budget so that future budget
increases do not have to be borne by DG XI.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Tom JENKINS