European Environment Agency

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 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 Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet) is a collaboration network between EEA member countries and non-member, cooperating nations.[5][6] 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.[5]

Eionet currently includes covers seven European Topic Centres (ETCs):

• ETC on Biodiversity and Ecosystems (ETC BE)
• ETC on Climate Change Adaptation and LULUCF (ETC CA)
• ETC on Climate Change Mitigation (ETC CM)
• ETC on Data Integration and Digitalisation (ETC DI)
• ETC on Human Health and the Environment (ETC HE)
• ETC on Circular Economy and Resource Use (ETC CE)
• ETC on Sustainability Transitions (ETC ST)

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. [7]

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.[8]^: 8 and questioned that maximum competition and value-for-money principles were honored in hiring, also possible fictitious employees.[8]^: 10

The EEA's Executive Director refuted allegations of irregularities in a public hearing.[9] On 27 March 2012 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted on the report[10] 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.[11]

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:[12]

• Eastern Partnership member states: Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia
• Union for the Mediterranean member states: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia
• Other ENPI states: Russia
• Central Asian states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

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

• United States (Environmental Protection Agency)
• Canada (Environment Canada)

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.

• Agencies of the European Union
• Citizen Science, cleanup projects that people can take part in.
• EU environmental policy
• List of atmospheric dispersion models
• List of environmental organizations
• Confederation of European Environmental Engineering Societies
• Coordination of Information on the Environment
• European Agency for Safety and Health at Work[13]
• Environment Agency

• Official website
• European Topic Centre on Land Use and Spatial Information (ETC LUSI)
• European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change(ETC/ACC)
• European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity(ETC/BD) Archived 12 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Model Documentation System (MDS)
• The European Environment Agency's near real-time ozone map (ozoneweb)
• The European Climate Adaptation Platform Climate-ADAPT
• EUNIS homepage