VIDEO
A General Introduction to the EEA
Contextual framework – the EEA in context
Work programmes
Rubric
A clear focus for the monitoring and reporting activities described above is fundamental to the efficiency of the EEA.
Despite the vast network of indicator reporting and monitoring, there is a limit to how much any agency can undertake within its resources. Critically, the research of the EEA must be guided by the contemporary policy and legislative framework envisioned by the Environment Directorate-General and the members, as the primary clients of the EEA. Consequently, though the studies of the EEA are extensive, they are still targeted at selected sectors in response to the existing or expected information needs for developing environmental policy and implementing legislation.
Multi-Annual Work Programmes (MAWP)
This selected concentration is embodied in the Multi-Annual Work Programmes (MAWP). The MAWP sets out the work schedule of the EEA in macro terms over a five-year period. Following consultation with a wide range of stakeholders including the Committee and the NFPs, the members of the Board will draft an MAWP.
The draft MAWP is submitted to the Committee and the Commission for consideration. Each of these will publish an opinion on the draft MAWP containing suggested amendments that will be incorporated by the Board. The Committee opinion concentrates on scientific needs and requirements while the Commission opinion will detail changes necessary to ensure that the data collated is pertinent to the forthcoming policy platform.
The 2nd MAWP (1999–2003) is grounded in the requirement of environmental information for promoting sustainable development policies. This is in line with the regulatory charge of the EEA to inform the framing of environmentally sound policies. Sustainable development as a concept had a long life in flowery rhetoric before real steps were taken to make the notion visibly tangible in the EU. The development of the priorities of the 2nd MAWP can be traced through various conferences, research papers, and debates to the 5th European Environmental Action Programme ‘Towards Sustainability’ (1998).
Framing the 2nd MAWPin light of these developments led to the adoption of a clear focus to report on the conditions and movement of environmental indicators illuminating progress in sustainable development. Thus, from 1999–2003, the mission statement of the EEA has been: to support sustainable development and to help achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe’s environment through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy making agents and the public.
Hence the broad research headings designated related to monitoring the pollutant pressures of waste, chemicals, water discharges, releases to soil/land, and atmospheric emission in concert with assessment of the quality of air, water, soil, biotypes, and the coastal and marine environment. Studying these areas on their own would encapsulate environmental conditions and progress but shed limited light on sustainable development. To address this point the EEA was tasked with co-coordinating liaison between socio-economic data compilers in supplementing the EEA Reference Centre with the requisite information from these sources to allow for broad reports scrutinizing the state of sustainable development objectives.
Utilizing the MAWP for medium term strategic planning is advantageous for the EEA’s own development as well as beneficial for the ultimate clients of the EEA products. It allows the EEA to assess the infrastructural needs and costs while compelling budgetary commitments in advance to implement the programme.
This facet of the 2nd MAWP has allowed the EEA to advance a great deal since 1999 to achieve the structural targets assigned. Amongst these was the expansion of EIONET, which by 1999 was in need of streamlining and enabling greater public access to materials generated through the network.
The development of the reference centre even beyond the growth required to monitor sustainable development was another core target. Identifying emerging issues of environmental significance, allowing the agency greater scope for influencing the environmental policy agenda at the input stage was set as a key challenge. The achievement of the 2nd MAWP targets for the structural development of the EEA is the primary reason why both the workload and the budget of the agency have increased so dramatically in recent years.
The 3rd MAWP will apply from 2004–2008 during which time the EEA will become almost unrecognizable from the fledgling agency founded in Copenhagen in 1993. The 3rd MAW will further enhance the scope of data indicator collection and promote stronger external co-operation. As a development from the sustainable development focus of its predecessor, the 3rd MAWP will orchestrate sweeping assessment of health impacts from an ecosystem analysis perspective.
Substantial economic evaluation of the impacts of sustainable development policies detailing in particular cost-benefit evaluations has been identified as especially important in the continuing development of these measures. The other major growth area in the workload of the EEA under the 3rd MAWP will be multi-scale assessment of environmental indicators as a contribution to the international collaborative assessment of environmental trends at regional and global levels.
Annual Work Programmes (AWPs)
At a micro level the work of the EEA is scheduled in AWPs. Each AWP sets work schemes in pursuit of the requirements set by the MAWP. Additionally, the AWP is more flexible, allowing the EEA scope to be responsive in its work to immediate trends and pressures. These include the requirements of the EEA report publication regime; acknowledging the impact of updates in the European Environmental Action Programme; focus changes within the Environment Directorate-General and the Council of Ministers; and work in support of the environmental agenda of the alternating Presidency of the Council of the EU.
The broad research headings allocated in the MAWP are revisited in more detail in the AWP. In particular, each of the ETCs is assigned tasks and targets relating to monitoring and data collation; developing information and future projections based on indicators; and submitting assessment reports in each field. In response to prevailing influences not in existence at the formulation of the 2nd MAWP, the AWP 2003 accounts for work necessitated by a number of new factors. Chief amongst these is EU enlargement where the EEA plays a lead role in assisting in the development of the environmental structures of candidate countries in preparation for harmonization. Candidate countries benefit from the experiences of the EEA regarding sustainable development and the conservation of environmental assets.
Climate change issues are now of serious import within the EU and the EEA works to ensure that co-operation in climate change is solidified. The EEA also plays an important part in assisting candidate countries to prepare their general population, in general, and their transport and energy sectors, in particular, for the environmental impacts of integration into the EU. Alongside these assistance arrangements, the EEA is tasked with extended environmental assessment obligations incorporating new geographic areas, with particular emphasis on the River Danube and the Black Sea.
Another new development is the extended co-operation on environmental issues consequential to the 2nd Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on the Environment in July 2002, which resolved to improve implementation of the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean and to strengthen the environmental dimension of European-Mediterranean relations. Communication of EU environmental protection policies and activities regarding the non-EEA Mediterranean countries is now the responsibility of the EEA. Moreover, the EEA is harmonizing its indicator sets for the region with those of other non-EEA monitors and carrying out an intensive sustainable development review of the region.
Through these new activities, and the detailed enforcement of the MAWP targets, the AWP ensures substantive implementation of the MAWP, while also allowing the EEA to grow and respond to changing needs in a swift manner.
