Council Regulation (EC) No 933/1999 of 29 April 1999 amending Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 on the establishment of the European Environment Agency and the European environment information and observation network
5. 5. 1999 EN Official Journal of the European Communities L 117/1 I (Acts whose publication is obligatory) COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 933/1999 of 29 April 1999 amending Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 on the establishment of the European Environment Agency and the European environment information and observa- tion network THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 130s(1) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1), Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (2), Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions (3), Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189c of the Treaty (4), (1) Whereas Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 (5) estab- lished the European Environment Agency and the European environment information and observa- tion network; whereas Article 20 of the Regulation made provision for a decision by Council on whether to add further tasks to the Agency, based on a report with appropriate proposals from the Commission, no later than two years after the entry into force of the Regulation; whereas Article 21 stipulated that the Regulation would enter into force on the day following that on which the competent authorities decided on the seat of the Agency, and whereas this decision was taken on 29 October 1993; (2) Whereas the Commission in its Communication COM(95) 325 final gave its reason why the report provided for in Article 20 should be postponed, and on 9 November 1995 the Council considered that any decision on further tasks for the European Environment Agency would be premature before (1) OJ C 255, 20. 8. 1997, p. 9 and OJ C 123, 22. 4. 1998, p. 6. (2) OJ C 73, 9. 3. 1998, p. 103. (3) OJ C 180, 11. 6. 1998, p. 32. (4) Opinion of the European Parliament of 18 February 1998 (OJ C 80, 16. 3. 1998, p. 134), Council Common Position of 20 July 1998 (OJ C 364, 25. 11. 1998, p. 1 ) and Decision of the European Parliament of 9 February 1999 (not yet published in the Official Journal). (5) OJ L 120, 11. 5. 1990, p. 1. the Agency had been fully operational for two years and before its network had been completely estab- lished; (3) Whereas the European Environment Agency has made good progress in achieving its objectives and completing its tasks, including the establishment of the European environment information and obser- vation network; (4) Whereas the tasks and areas to address are wide and the work already require both consolidation of undertaken and further effort; (5) Whereas the Agency has a primary role as provider of objective, reliable and comparable information on the environment; (6) Whereas any new tasks allocated to the Agency should complement and enhance its primary role; (7) Whereas the Translation Centre for bodies of the European Union has the task of translating docu- ments of the European Environment Agency, in accordance with Regulation No 2965/94 (6); (8) Whereas the organisation and structure of the Agency need to be improved and clarified, in line with the experience of its first years of operation; (9) Whereas the management board of the Agency should take into account the need to reflect the different the Community through an appropriate distribution of the topic centres; circumstances geographic in (10) Whereas the Agency may cooperate with institu- tions in third countries in order to obtain data necessary the work- programme; completion of the for (6) OJ L 314, 7. 12. 1994, p. 1. Regulation as amended by Regula- tion No 2610/95 (OJ L 268, 10. 11. 1995, p. 1). L 117/2 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 5. 5. 1999 (11) Whereas future reviews the Agency’s performance and tasks should coincide with the cycle five-yearly multiannual work- programme; its of of (12) Whereas Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 should accordingly be amended, HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: Article 1 Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 shall be amended as follows: may also include peer reviews by experts at the specific request of Member States; (iii) to record, collate and assess data on the state of the environment, to draw up expert reports on the quality, sensitivity and pressures on the environment within the territory of the Community, to provide uniform assessment criteria for environmental data to be applied in all Member States, to develop further and maintain a reference centre of information on the environment. The Commission shall use this information in its task of ensuring the implementation of Community legislation on the environment;' ‘(vi) to publish a report on the state of, trends in and prospects for the environment every five years, reports supplemented by indicator focusing upon specific issues;' 1. In Article 1(2) the initial part shall be replaced by the following: (b) the following points shall be added: To achieve the aims of environmental protec- ‘2. tion and improvement laid down by the Treaty and by successive Community action programmes on the environment, as well as of sustainable development, the objective shall be to provide the Community and the Member States with:'. 2. Article 2, shall be amended as follows: (a) points (ii), (iii) and (vi) shall be replaced by the following: ‘(ii) ü to provide the Community and the Member States with the objective infor- mation necessary for framing and imple- menting sound and effective environ- mental policies; to that end, in particular to provide the Commission with the information that it needs to be able to carry out successfully its tasks of identi- fying, preparing and evaluating measures and legislation in the field of the environ- ment; ü to assist the monitoring of environmental measures through appropriate support for reporting (including requirements through involvement in the development of questionnaires, of from Member States and the reports distribution of results), in accordance with its multiannual work-programme and with the aim of coordinating reporting; the processing the annual Agency’s ü to advise individual Member States, upon their request and where this is consistent with work- programme, on the development, estab- lishment and expansion of their systems the monitoring of environmental for measures, provided such activities do not endanger the fulfilment of the other tasks established by this Article. Such advice ‘(xi) to ensure the broad dissemination of reliable and comparable environmental information, in particular on the state of the environ- ment, to the general public and, to this end, to promote the use of new telematics tech- nology for this purpose; (xii) to support the Commission in the process of exchange of information on the develop- ment of Environmental Assessment meth- odologies and best practice; (xiii) to assist the Commission in the diffusion of information on the results of relevant envir- onmental research and in a form which can best assist policy development. ' 3. Article 3 shall be amended as follows: (a) in paragraph 1 the following words shall be added, starting on a new line: ‘including placing these in the context of sustain- able development. '; (b) in paragraph 2: (i) in the second subparagraph the eighth indent shall be replaced by the following: ‘ü coastal and marine protection'; (ii) the fifth subparagraph shall be deleted. (c) the following paragraph shall be added: The Agency may also cooperate in the information with other bodies, ‘3. exchange of including with the IMPEL network. In its activities the Agency shall avoid duplicating the existing activities of other institutions and bodies. ' 5. 5. 1999 EN Official Journal of the European Communities L 117/3 4. Article 4 shall be amended as follows: (a) in paragraph 2 the following subparagraph shall be added: ‘Member States shall keep the Agency informed of the main component elements of their national environment information networks. Member States shall, as appropriate, cooperate with the Agency and contribute to the work of the Euro- pean environment information and observation network in accordance with the work programme of the Agency by collecting, collating and analysing data nationwide. Member States may also join to cooperate in these activities at a trans- national level. '; (b) in paragraph 4, the following terms ‘in a precise geographical area. ' shall be deleted; in the second sentence, (c) in paragraph 5 the second subparagraph shall be replaced by the following: ‘The topic centres shall be designated by the management board as defined in Article 8(1), for a period not exceeding the duration of each multi- annual work programme as referred to in Article 8(4). Each designation may, however, be renewed. ' committee, referred to in Article 10, and receiving the Commission’s opinion. The multiannual work-programme shall, without prejudice to the annual Community budgetary procedure, include a multiannual budget estimate. '; (d) in paragraph 6, in the first sentence, the phrase ‘By 31 January each year. ' shall be replaced by ‘By 31 March each year. '. 6. Article 9(1) shall be amended as follows: (a) the fifth indent shall be replaced by the following: ‘ü for all staff matters, for the performance of the tasks referred to in Article 8(4) and (5). '; (b) the sixth indent shall be deleted. 7. Article 10(2) shall be replaced by the following: ‘2. The scientific committee shall be made up of members particularly qualified in the field of the environment, designated by the management board for a term of four years renewable once, taking into account, inter alia, the scientific areas which need to be represented in the committee in order to assist the Agency in its areas of activity. It shall function as determined by the rules of procedure provided for in Article 8(2). ' 5. Article 8 shall be amended as follows: 8. Article 15 shall be amended as follows: (a) in paragraph 1 the first subparagraph shall be replaced by the following: (a) a new paragraph shall be inserted as follows: The Agency shall have a management board ‘1. consisting of one representative of each Member State and two representatives of the Commission. In addition, there may be one representative of each other country which participates in the Agency, in accordance with the relevant. provi- sions. '; (b) in paragraph 2 the following subparagraph shall be added: ‘The management board shall elect a bureau to which it may delegate executive decisions, according to the rules that it shall adopt. '; (c) paragraphs 3 and 4 shall be replaced by the following: ‘3. Decisions of the management board shall require for their adoption a two-thirds majority of the members of the board. ‘2a. The Agency may cooperate in areas of common interest with those institutions in coun- tries which are not members of the European Communities which can provide data, informa- tion and expertise, methodologies of data collec- tion, analysis and assessment which are of mutual interest and which are necessary for the successful completion of the Agency’s work. '; (b) paragraph 3 shall be replaced by the following: ‘3. The cooperation referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 2a must in particular take account of the need to avoid any duplication of effort. ' 9. Article 20 shall be replaced by the following: ‘1. The Agency shall conduct an evaluation of its performance and efficiency before 15 September 1999 and submit a report to the management board, the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament. 4. The management board shall adopt a multi- annual work-programme based on the priority areas referred to in Article 3(2), using as its basis a draft submitted by the Executive Director referred to in Article 9, after consulting the scientific 2. Not later than 31 December 2003, on the basis of a report from the Commission, the Council shall review the progress of, and tasks undertaken by, the Agency in relation to the Community’s overall policy on the environment;'. L 117/4 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 5. 5. 1999 10. In the Annex, Part B, point 1 shall be replaced by the following: and (b) societal and economic responses to such pressures. statistical and the national ‘1. The Agency will use, as far as possible, informa- tion collected via the official Community statis- tical services. These result from the work of Euro- stat in collecting, validating and disseminating social and economic statistics, including national accounts and related information. In particular, the Agency will make use of work done by Eurostat and the national statistical offices under Decision 94/ 808/EEC (1), covering statistics on (a) human activities resulting in pressure on the environment services adopting (1) Council Decision 94/808/EEC of 15 December development 1994 programme (1994 to 1997) relating to the environ- mental component of Community statistics (OJ L 328, 20. 12. 1994, p. 58). ' four-year a Article 2 This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities. This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. Done at Luxembourg, 29 April 1999. For the Council The President W. MÜLLER