Environment: Eco-management and audit scheme EMAS, voluntary participation by organisations (amend. regul. 1836/93/EEC)

The Commission's amended proposal takes account of various amendments adopted by the European Parliament in its first reading. In light of these amendments, the main changes introduced by the Commission are the following: - clarification that the Scheme is open to all organisations having environmental impacts and inviting Member States to create incentives for organisations to participate in EMAS; - highlighting the need to continually ensure a good standard of environmental verifiers and a consistent implementation of the accreditation requirements of the EMAS Regulation in all the Member States; - introducing the reference to the European standard EN ISO 14001 and requiring the Commission to issue guidelines on the form and content of the environmental statements; - allowing Member States to appoint national, regional or local structures to act as EMAS competent bodies; - definition of the concept of 'stakeholders'; - ensure that participation in EMAS shall not create excessive administrative for SMEs; - providing for the use of the logo in product information; - inclusion of craft chambers on the list of organisations able to support EMAS implementation; - provision of support to candidate countries for accession to the EU.�