22.7.2011 Official Journal of the European Union L 192/1 | (Legislative acts) REGULATIONS REGULATION (EU) No 691/2011 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 6 July 2011 on European environmental economic accounts (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 338(1) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, G) After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments, Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (1), Whereas: (1) Article 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union provides, inter alia, that the Union ‘shall work for the sustainable development of Europe based on balanced economic growth and price stability, a highly competitive social () market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress, and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment'. (2)  Decision No 1600/2002/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 July 2002 laying down the Sixth  Community Environment Action Programme (?) confirmed that sound information on the state of the environment, and on the key trends, pressures and (1) Position of the European Parliament of 7 June 2011 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and decision of the Council of 21 June 2011. () OJ L 242, 10.9.2002, p. 1. drivers for environmental change, is essential for the development of effective policy, its implementation, and the empowerment of citizens more generally. Instruments should be developed with a view to enhancing public awareness of the environmental effects of economic activity. A scientifically sound approach to measuring the shortage of resources will, in the future, be crucial to the sustainable development of the Union. Decision No 1578/2007EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2007 on the Community Statistical Programme 2008 to 2012 (}) refers clearly to the need for high-quality statistics and accounts in the domain of the environment. Furthermore, under the main initiatives for 2008 to 2012 it states that legal bases should be developed, where appropriate, for core areas of environmental data collection currently not covered by legal acts. In its Communication of 20 August 2009 entitled ‘GDP and beyond: Measuring progress in a changing world’ the Commission recognised the need to supplement existing indicators with data that incorporate environ- mental and social aspects in order to allow more coherent and comprehensive policy making. To that end, environmental economic accounts offer a means of monitoring the pressures exerted by the economy on the environment and of exploring how these might be abated. Environmental economic accounts show the interaction between economic, household and environ- mental factors and consequently are more informative than national accounts alone. They provide a significant source of data for environmental decisions and the Commission should consult them when drawing up () OJ L 344, 28.12.2007, p. 15.