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
Date: 1998-07-20
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: European Environment Agency, appointment of staff, environmental policy, information network, scientific committee (EU)

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I

(Information)

COUNCIL

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
information  and  observation  network;
environment 
whereas  Article  20  of  the  Regulation  made  provision  for
a decision by Council on whether to add further tasks to

(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.

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;

in 

the  Commission 

Whereas 
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;

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Wheras  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 (1);

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  accor-
dingly  be  amended,

HAS  ADOPTED  THIS  REGULATION:

Article  1

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

(iii)

1.

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

To  achieve 

the  aims  of 

‘2.
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’;

and 

information  necessary  for  framing  and
implementing 
effective
sound 
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 

in 

assist 

support 

the  monitoring 

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

States 

and 

— 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 
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;

the  monitoring 

for 

territory  of 

to  record,  collate  and  assess  data  on  the
state of the environment, to draw up expert
reports  on  the  quality,  sensitivity  and
the  environment  within
pressures  on 
the 
to
the  Community, 
provide  uniform  assessment  criteria  for
environmental  data  to  be  applied  in  all
Member  States, 
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;’

to  develop 

2. Article  2,  shall  be  amended  as  follows:

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

following:

‘(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;’

‘ (ii) — to  provide  the  Community  and  the
the  objective

Member  States  with 

(b)

the  following  points  shall  be  added:

(1) 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).

‘ (xi)

to  ensure  the  broad  dissemination  of
environmental  information,  in  particular

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on  the  state  of  the  environment,  to
the  general  public  and,  to  this  end,  to
promote 
telematics
the  use  of  new 
technology  for  this  purpose;

work  programme  of  the  Agency  by  collecting,
collating and analysing data nationwide. Member
States  may  also 
in  these
activities  at  a  transnational  level.’;

join  to  cooperate 

(xii)

(xiii)

support 

the  Commission 

the
in 
to 
process  of  exchange  of 
information
on  the  development  of  Environmental
Assessment  methodologies 
and  best
practice;

information  on 

to  assist  the  Commission  in  the  diffusion
of 
results  of
relevant  environmental  research  and  in
a  form  which  can  best  assist  policy
development.’;

the 

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 
sustainable development.’;

in 

the  context  of

(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:

The  Agency  may  also  cooperate  in  the
information  with  other  bodies,

‘3.
exchange  of 
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

(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.

The  management  board  shall  adopt  a
4.
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
shall,  without
multiannual  work-programme 
prejudice  to  the  annual  Community  budgetary
procedure, 
a  multiannual  budget
estimate.’;

include 

(d)

in  paragraph  6,  in  the  first  sentence,  the  phrase
‘By  31  January  each  year  . . .’  shall  be  replaced
by  ‘By  31  March  each  year  . . .’;

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

9.

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

(a)

the 
fifth 
following:

indent  shall  be  replaced  by 

the

‘— 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:

The  scientific  committee  shall  be  made  up  of
‘2.
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:

those 

institutions 

interest  with 

The  Agency  may  cooperate  in  areas  of
‘2a.
in
common 
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.’;

‘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
Council  Decision
statistical 
under 
94/808/EC (*),  covering  statistics  on 
(a)  human
activities resulting in pressure on the environment and
such
(b) 
pressures.

societal  and  economic 

responses 

offices 

to 

adopting 

(*) Council  Decision  94/808/EEC  of  15  December
development
the
to 
of  Community

1994 
programme 
environmental 
statistics  (OJ  L  328,  20.12.1994,  p.  58).’

a 
(1994-1997) 

component 

four-year 

relating 

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.

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

Done  at  . . .

The 

cooperation 

‘3.
in
paragraphs  1,  2  and  2a  must  in  particular  take
account  of  the  need  to  avoid  any  duplication  of
effort.’;

referred 

to 

For  the  Council

The  President

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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.

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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;

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(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

the 

This  Article  concerns 
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.

C 364/8

EN

Official  Journal  of  the  European  Communities

25.11.98

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.