 | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 30 October 1993 |
| Jurisdiction | European Union |
| Headquarters | Copenhagen, Denmark 55°40′52″N12°35′12″E / 55.681208°N 12.586609°E |
| Agency executives |
|
| Key document | |
| Website | www |
| Map | |
  Copenhagen European Environment Agency (European Union) | |
The European Environment Agency (EEA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) which provides independent information on the environment.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) which provides independent information on the environment. Its goal is to help those involved in developing, implementing and evaluating environmental policy, and to inform the general public.
The EEA was established by the European Economic Community (EEC) Regulation 1210/1990 (amended by EEC Regulation 933/1999 and EC Regulation 401/2009) and became operational in 1994, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The agency is governed by a management board composed of representatives of the governments of its 32 member states, a European Commission representative and two scientists appointed by the European Parliament, assisted by its Scientific Committee.
The current Executive Director of the agency is Leena Ylä-Mononen, who has been appointed for a five-year term, starting on 1 June 2023. Ms Ylä-Mononen is the successor of professor Hans Bruyninckx.
The member states of the European Union are members; however other states may become members of it by means of agreements concluded between them and the EU.
It was the first EU body to open its membership to the 13 candidate countries (pre-2004 enlargement).
The EEA has 32 member countries and six cooperating countries. The members are the 27 European Union member states together with Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey.
Since Brexit in 2020, the UK is not a member of the EU anymore and therefore not a member state of the EEA.
The six Western Balkan countries are cooperating countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia as well as Kosovo under the UN Security Council Resolution 1244/99. [1] These cooperation activities are integrated into Eionet and are supported by the EU under the "Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance".
The EEA is an active member of the EPA Network. [2]
| EU Member countries | non-EU Member countries | Cooperating countries |
|---|---|---|
 Austria |  Iceland |  Albania |
 Belgium |  Liechtenstein |  Bosnia and Herzegovina |
 Bulgaria |  Norway |  Kosovo [3] |
 Croatia |  Switzerland |  Montenegro |
 Czech Republic |  Turkey |  North Macedonia |
 Cyprus |  Serbia | |
 Denmark | ||
 Estonia | ||
 Finland | ||
 France | ||
 Germany | ||
 Greece | ||
 Hungary | ||
 Ireland | ||
 Italy | ||
 Latvia | ||
 Lithuania | ||
 Luxembourg | ||
 Malta | ||
 Netherlands | ||
 Poland | ||
 Portugal | ||
 Romania | ||
 Slovakia | ||
 Slovenia | ||
 Spain | ||
 Sweden | ||
The European Environment Agency (EEA) produces assessments based on quality-assured data on a wide range of issues from biodiversity, air quality, transport to climate change. These assessments are closely linked to the European Union's environment policies and legislation and help monitor progress in some areas and indicate areas where additional efforts are needed.
As required in its founding regulation, the EEA publishes its flagship report the State and Outlook of Europe's environment (SOER), which is an integrated assessment, analysing trends, progress to targets as well as outlook for the mid- to long-term. The agency publishes annually a report on Europe's most polluted provinces for air quality, detailing fine particulate matter PM 2.5. [4]
The EEA shares this information, including the datasets used in its assessments, through its main website and a number of thematic information platforms such as Biodiversity Information System for Europe (BISE), Water Information System for Europe (WISE) and ClimateADAPT. The Climate-ADAPT knowledge platform presents information and data on expected climatic changes, the vulnerability of regions and sectors, adaptation case studies, and adaptation options, adaptation planning tools, and EU policy.
The European Nature Information System (EUNIS) provides access to the publicly available data in the EUNIS database for species, habitat types and protected sites across Europe. It is part of the European Biodiversity data centre (BDC), and is maintained by the EEA.
The database contains data [5]
 | This section has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
The European Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet) is a collaboration network between EEA member countries and non-member, cooperating nations. [6] [7] Cooperation is facilitated through different national environmental agencies, ministries, or offices. Eionet encourages the sharing of data and highlights specific topics for discussion and cooperation among participating countries. [6]
Eionet currently includes covers seven European Topic Centres (ETCs):
The European Environment Agency (EEA) implements the "Shared Environmental Information System" principles and best practices via projects such as the "ENI SEIS II EAST PROJECT" & the "ENI SEIS II SOUTH PROJECT" to support environmental protection within the six eastern partnership countries (ENP) & to contribute to the reduction in marine pollution in the Mediterranean through the shared availability and access to relevant environmental information. [8]
As for every EU body and institution, the EEA's budget is subject to a discharge process, consisting of external examination of its budget execution and financial management, to ensure sound financial management of its budget. Since its establishment, the EEA has been granted discharge for its budget without exception. The EEA provides full access to its administrative and budgetary documents in its public documents register.
The discharge process for the 2010 budget required additional clarifications. In February 2012, the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control published a draft report, identifying areas of concern in the use of funds and its influence for the 2010 budget such as a 26% budget increase from 2009 to 2010 to €50 600 000. [9] : 8 and questioned that maximum competition and value-for-money principles were honored in hiring, also possible fictitious employees. [9] : 10
The EEA's Executive Director refuted allegations of irregularities in a public hearing. [10] On 27 March 2012 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted on the report [11] and commended the cooperation between the Agency and NGOs working in the environmental area.[ citation needed ] On 23 October 2012, the European Parliament voted and granted the discharge to the European Environment Agency for its 2010 budget. [12]
| Name | Nationality | Term(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Domingo Jiménez-Beltrán | Spain | 1994–2003 |
| Jacqueline McGlade |  United Kingdom | 2003–2013 |
| Hans Bruyninckx | Belgium | 2013–2023 |
| Leena Ylä-Mononen | Finland | 2023– |
In addition to its 32 members and six Balkan cooperating countries, the EEA also cooperates and fosters partnerships with its neighbours and other countries and regions, mostly in the context of the European Neighbourhood Policy: [13]
Additionally the EEA cooperates with multiple international organizations and the corresponding agencies of the following countries:
The 26 official languages used by the EEA are: Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Danish, German, Greek, English, Spanish, Estonian, Finnish, French, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Malti, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Swedish and Turkish.
Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectively. The network includes both terrestrial and Marine Protected Areas.
Eurostat is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statistical information to the institutions of the European Union (EU) and to promote the harmonisation of statistical methods across its member states and candidates for accession as well as EFTA countries. The organisations in the different countries that cooperate with Eurostat are summarised under the concept of the European Statistical System.
The Indian Ocean Commission is an intergovernmental organisation that links African Indian Ocean nations: Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, and Seychelles. There are also seven observers: China, the European Union, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, the Sovereign Order of Malta, India, Japan and the United Nations.
The budget of the European Union is used to finance EU funding programmes and other expenditure at the European level.
Copernicus is the Earth observation component of the European Union Space Programme, managed by the European Commission and implemented in partnership with the EU Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Environment Agency (EEA), the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), Frontex, SatCen and Mercator Océan.
Interreg is a series of programmes to stimulate cooperation between regions in and out of the European Union (EU), funded by the European Regional Development Fund. The first Interreg started in 1989. Interreg IV covered the period 2007–2013. Interreg V (2014–2020) covers all 27 EU member states, the EFTA countries, six accession countries and 18 neighbouring countries. It has a budget of EUR 10.1 billion, which represents 2.8% of the total of the European Cohesion Policy budget. Since the non EU countries don't pay EU membership fee, they contribute directly to Interreg, not through ERDF.
Water supply and sanitation (WSS) in the European Union (EU) is the responsibility of each member state, but in the 21st century union-wide policies have come into effect. Water resources are limited and supply and sanitation systems are under pressure from urbanisation and climate change. Indeed, the stakes are high as the European Environmental Agency found that one European out of ten already suffers a situation of water scarcity and the IEA measured the energy consumption of the water sector to be equivalent to 3,5% of the electricity consumption of the EU.
The European External Action Service (EEAS) is the diplomatic service and combined foreign and defence ministry of the European Union (EU). The EEAS is led by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR/VP), who is also President of the Foreign Affairs Council and vice-president of the European Commission, and carries out the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), including the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).
The EEA Grants and Norway Grants represent the contributions of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to reducing social and economic disparities in the European Economic Area (EEA) and strengthening bilateral relations with 15 EU countries in Central and Southern Europe. Through the Grants, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway are also contributing to strengthening fundamental European values such as democracy, tolerance and the rule of law.
The Alpine Space Programme is a transnational cooperation programme in the framework of the European Union cohesion policy. In this programme national, regional and local stakeholders from the participating countries in the Alpine space cooperate on various transnational projects.
The LIFE programme is the European Union's funding instrument for the environment and climate action. The general objective of LIFE is to contribute to the implementation, updating and development of EU environmental and climate policy and legislation by co-financing projects with European added value. LIFE began in 1992 and to date there have been five phases of the programme. During this period, LIFE has co-financed some 4600 projects across the EU, with a total contribution of approximately 6.5 billion Euros to the protection of the environment and of climate. For the next phase of the programme (2021–2027) the European Commission proposed to raise the budget to 5.45 billion Euro.
European Union–Pakistan relations are the international relations between the common foreign policy and trade relations of the European Union and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
The EPA Network is the European Network of the Heads of Environment Protection Agencies.
The European Union (EU) has had permanent observer status at the United Nations (UN) since 1974, and has had enhanced participation rights since 2011. The EU itself does not have voting rights but it is represented alongside its 27 members, one of which, France, is a permanent member of the Security Council.
Environmental issues in the European Union include the environmental issues identified by the European Union as well as its constituent states. The European Union has several federal bodies which create policy and practice across the constituent states.
The European Centre for Nature Conservation (ECNC) was a Dutch non-profit foundation which was active in the field of European nature and biodiversity policy between 1993 and 2017. It was set up as a network of university departments, expert centres and government agencies and operated as a European biodiversity expertise centre. The organization promoted sustainable management of natural resources and biodiversity, and aimed to stimulate interaction between science, society and policy.
Sea transport accounts for most of the European Union's external and internal commerce. The EU is the world's third-largest importer of fisheries and aquaculture products and the fifth-largest producer. Maritime borders make up more than 70% of the Union's external borders, and hundreds of millions of travelers pass through European ports each year. The security of Europe's energy supply is heavily reliant on marine transit and infrastructure. The significant expansion of EU Member States' fleets, as well as suitable port infrastructure, contribute to a well-functioning energy market and supply security, and hence to European residents' and the European economy's overall well-being. The Arctic region is therefore a vital new area for the EU to work towards and a new strategy for the Arctic region that matches with the European Green deal was established in late 2021.
The Common Database on Designated Areas or CDDA is a data bank for officially designated protected areas such as nature reserves, protected landscapes, national parks etc. in Europe.
Since the late 1970s, the European Union's (EU) policy has been to develop and drive appropriate measures to improve air quality throughout the EU. The control of emissions from mobile sources, improving fuel quality and promoting and integrating environmental protection requirements into the transport and energy sector are part of these aims.
In Italy, widespread impacts of climate change are currently being felt. With an increase in extreme events such as heatwaves, droughts and more frequent flooding, Italy faces many challenges adapting to climate change.
