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

OBJECTIVE: to amend Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 on the establishment of the European Environment Agency, in order to step up its activities in certain fields and improve its organization and structure in the light of experience gained. SUBSTANCE: Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 on the establishment of the European Environment Agency lays down that, once the Agency has been in existence for two years, the Council may decide to allocate it further tasks. Following a proposal by the Commission and a resolution by the European Parliament (COS0308), the Council took the view that the allocation of the new tasks should be postponed for two years (mainly because of problems in recruiting staff); it was decided that the allocation of tasks would be reviewed by 30.10.1997 at the latest. The Commission now proposes reviewing the original Regulation, consolidating certain activities of the Agency in clearly defined fields, but without strictly speaking giving it any new tasks. In the light of the experience gained, it is to flesh out and enhance its role in storing and providing information about the state and development of the environment. The main changes concern the following points: -supplying the Commission with information on the identification, preparation and evaluation of measures to be taken in the field of the environment (particularly drawing up regular reports containing critical assessments by peers or specialist advice on environmental monitoring), -establishing environmental archives, -publishing, every five years, a report on the state of the environment and annual indicative reports, -wide dissemination to the public of information about the state of the environment, -helping the Commission to exchange information and environmental impact assessments, -helping the Commission to disseminate information about environmental research. At the same time, other changes have been made in the following fields: -European Environment Information and Observation Network: all Member States will be required to inform the Agency of developments and changes in the network. In addition, Member States must cooperate with the Agency in gathering and processing data at national level. The procedure for Topic Centres is also to be amended, -Management Board: participation by representatives of the EFTA/EEA countries is to be extended to the Management Board of the Agency. Other technical and organizational changes are also to be made, -Scientific Committee: appointment of members is to be left to the discretion of the Management Board, -cooperation with third countries: in some fields of common interest, cooperation will be possible, -reporting and evaluation: by 31.12.2003 at the latest, a report on the progress and tasks of the Agency is to be drawn up by the Commission; an interim report on its effectiveness is to be drawn up by 31.10.1999, -use of environmental statistics: certain statistics gathered by Eurostat on human activity resulting in pressure on the environment and societal and economic responses to such pressures may be used by the Agency.�