No L 328/58 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 94 II (Acts whose publication is not obligatory) COUNCIL COUNCIL DECISION of 15 December 1994 adopting a 4-year development programme (1994-1997) relating to the environmental component of Community statistics (94/808/EC) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the Europ.ean Community, and in particular Article 130s, paragraph 1, thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ('), Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (3), Acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 189c of the Treaty (%), Whereas the fifth Community environmental action programme, “Towards sustainability’, of which the general approach and strategy were approved in the Resolution of the Council and the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council of 1 February 1993 on a Community programme of policy and action in relation to the environment and sustainable development (), requires a high level of priority to be assigned, inter alia, to ‘exploiting and strengthening the experiences and capacities of the European statistical system to deliver environmentally relevant statistics on a regular basis, which will be comparable to and linked to () OJ No C 209, 22. 8. 1990, p. 29. (» OJ No C 332, 21. 12. 1990, p. 119. () Opinion of the European Parliament of 11 February 1992 (O] No C 67, 16. 3. 1992), Council Common Position of 8 June 1994 (O] No C 213, 3. 8. 1994, p. 15) and Decision of the European Parliament of 26 October 1994 (O] No C 323, 21. 11. 1994). : () OJ No C 138, 17. 5. 1993, p. 1. the traditional official statistics in the economic and social fields’; : Whereas environment statistics form part of the frame- work programme for priority actions in the field of statis- tical information 1993-97 adopted by the Council in Decision 93/464/EEC (%) ; whereas Article 4 of that Deci- sion foresees the need for further specific implementing actions to be decided by the Council ; whereas the present development programme for environment statistics is such an action ; Whereas there is a clear need for integrated quantitative information on the relationship between the environment on the one hand and the socio-economic activities and policies on the other hand; Whereas it is essential for developments in official envi- ronmental statistics to be coordinated in order to contri- bute to meeting the main international, Community and national needs at minimum public and private cost, and that this can most conveniently be done within the established procedures of cooperation between the Commission, the statistical services of international orga- nizations and those of the Member States ; whereas it is therefore appropriate to adopt a four-year programme to ensure this coordinated development; Wheras important work on the methodology and collec- tion of environmental data is carried out by the statistical services of international organizations, in particular the United Nations’ Statistical Office, the Conference of European Statisticians and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; whereas the present programme should take account of this work ; () OJ No L 219, 28. 8. 1993, p. 1.