European Environment Agency, European information and observation (amend. Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90)

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. This referred to cooperation with "other bodies" including IMPEL. In particular, the Common Position incorporates those amendments referring to the following: - broadening the scope of the dissemination of information, focussing particularly on information on the state of the environment; - integrating sustainable development into the Agency's objectives; - making provision for environmental monitoring reports (within a clearly defined framework) and, at the request of Member States, expert "peer review"; - making provision for better practice in evaluating the state of the environment; - clarifying the research role of the Agency regarding the development of environmental policy; - providing for a multi-annual budgetary estimate to accompany the Multi-annual Work Programme; The amendment which referred to making all documents available in all official languages was not included. Instead, the Council specifies that the Agency should use the Translation Centre in Luxembourg to translate the relevant Agency documents. Essentially, the Common Position amends Regulation 1210/90/EEC by strengthening the role of the European Environmental Agency, especially with regard to its tasks in the areas of implementation of Community environmental law and dissemination of environmental information. Certain alterations have been made by the Council, establishing the principle of geographical equity in terms of the distribution of Topic Centres. The Council has removed specific references to the EEA/EFTA states, instead preferring a generic reference to "other countries" that participate in the Agency having a representative on the Management Board. Similarly, it has removed specific references to the membership of the Bureau, leaving it instead to the Management Board to adopt its own rules. The Council has modified the Commission proposal with regard to the aspects and modalities of cooperation between the Agency and the Member States in the collection, collation and analysis of environment information nationwide. This modification is motivated by the fact that the Council feels it would be inappropriate to impose a legal obligation on Member States as far as cooperation with the Agency is concerned. Provision is also made for Member States to combine in the provision of data where this is more convenient or appropriate.�