European Environment Agency

European Environment Agency

Agency overview
Formed	30 October 1993 (1993-10-30)
Jurisdiction	European Union
Headquarters	Copenhagen, Denmark
Agency executives	Hans Bruyninckx, Executive Director Elisabeth Freytag-Rigler, Chairwoman of Management Board
Key document	Regulation (EC) No 401/2009
Website	www.eea.europa.eu

The European Environment Agency (EEA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) that provides independent information on the environment, thereby helping those involved in developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy, as well as informing the general public. The agency is governed by a management board composed of representatives of the governments of its 33 member states, a European Commission representative and two scientists appointed by the European Parliament, assisted by a committee of scientists.

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. It is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The current Executive Director of the agency is Professor Hans Bruyninckx, who has been appointed for a five-year term. He is the successor of Professor Jacqueline McGlade.

The member states of the union are members; however the Council Regulation establishing it provided that 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 33 member countries and six cooperating countries. The European environment information and observation network (Eionet) is a partnership network of the EEA and the countries. The EEA is responsible for developing the network and coordinating its activities. To do so, the EEA works closely together with national focal points, typically national environment agencies or environment ministries. They are responsible for coordinating national networks involving many institutions (about 350 in all).

The 33 member countries include the 28 European Union Member States together with Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey.

The six Balkans countries are cooperating countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia as well as Kosovo under the UN Security Council Resolution 1244/99. These cooperation activities are integrated into Eionet and are supported by the European Union under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance.

The EEA is an active member of the EPA Network.

Member countries

The 33 member countries include the 28 European Union member states together with Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. The six Western Balkan countries are cooperating countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia as well as Kosovo under the UN Security Council Resolution 1244/99.

EU Member countries	non-EU Member countries	Cooperating countries
Austria	Iceland	Albania
Belgium	Liechtenstein	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria	Norway	Kosovo (under the UN Security Council Resolution 1244/99)
Croatia	Switzerland	Macedonia
Czech Republic	Turkey	Montenegro
Cyprus		Serbia
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom

European environment information and observation network

The European environment information and observation network (Eionet) is a partnership network of the EEA and its member and cooperating countries. The EEA is responsible for developing the network and coordinating its activities. To do this, the EEA works closely together with the National Focal Points (NFPs), typically national environment agencies or environment ministries in the member countries.

The NFPs are responsible for coordinating networks of the National Reference Centres (NRCs), bringing altogether around 1000 experts from over 350 national institutions and other bodies dealing with environmental information.

Apart from the NFPs and NRCs, Eionet currently covers six European Topic Centres (ETCs) in the areas of air and climate change, biological diversity, climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation, water, land use and spatial information and analysis and sustainable consumption and production.

Annual discharge process

On February 2012, the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control published a draft report identifying potential areas of concern in the use of funds and influence for the 2010 budget. The EEA's Executive Director refuted allegations of irregularities in a public hearing

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted on the report on 27 March 2012 and commended the cooperation between the Agency and NGOs working in the environmental area. On 23 October 2012, the European Parliament voted and granted the discharge to the European Environment Agency for its 2010 budget.

On 17 April 2013, the European Parliament (MEPs) voted and granted the discharge to the European Environment Agency for its 2011 budget.

Executive directors

Name	Nationality	Term(s)
Domingo Jiménez-Beltrán	Spain	1994 – 2003
Jacqueline McGlade	United Kingdom	2003 – 2013
Hans Bruyninckx	Belgium	2013 –

International cooperation

In addition to its 33 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:

• EaP states: Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgira
• UfM states: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia
• other ENPI states: Russia
• Central Asia states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

Additionally the EEA cooperates with multiple international organizations and the corresponding agencies of the following countries:

• United States of America (Environmental Protection Agency)
• Canada (Environment Canada)
• PR China (State Environmental Protection Administration)

Official languages

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.

See also

• Agencies of the European Union
• EU environmental policy
• List of atmospheric dispersion models
• Confederation of European Environmental Engineering Societies
• Coordination of Information on the Environment
• European Agency for Safety and Health at Work
• Environment Agency

External links

• European Environment Agency website
• European Topic Centre on Land Use and Spatial Information (ETC LUSI)
• European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change(ETC/ACC)
• Model Documentation System (MDS)
• The European Environment Agency's near real-time ozone map (ozoneweb)
• EnviroWindows