The Commission presented a report on the
implementation of Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 of the European
Parliament and of the Council on European environmental economic
accounts. The first report was published in 2013.2 This is the
second report.
As a reminder, environmental economic accounts are a
statistical system bringing together economic and environmental
information, in order to measure on the one hand the contribution
of the environment to the economy and on the other hand the impact
of the economy on the environment. They offer a means of monitoring
the pressures exerted by the economy on the environment and of
exploring how these might be reduced.
Legal framework: the
Regulation establishes the European environmental economic
accounts. The Regulation structures the accounts in modules. It
originally created three modules as follows: (i) air
emissions accounts; (ii) environmentally related taxes by economic
activity (energy, transport, pollution and resources); (iii)
economy-wide material flow accounts.
One major development since the last implementation
report was the amendment of the Regulation with the addition of
three further modules as follows: (i) environmental protection
expenditure accounts; (ii) environmental goods and services sector
accounts; (iii) physical energy flow accounts.
Developments since the last report:
- in 2015, the Commission adopted one Implementing
Regulation and one Delegated
Regulation to complement the general framework established in
the Regulation. Both Regulations were designed to ensure
comparability across countries and to enforce quality
standards;
- whilst the environmental accounts are already
contributing to a number of policymaking initiatives, they have
not yet achieved their full potential. The accounts are new and
still relatively unknown among institutional users. Statisticians
can accelerate the growth of awareness by better communicating and
promoting the data already available. Explaining the analytical
power of environmental economic accounts is also part of the
initiatives currently being implemented;
- the statistical data submitted by Member States under
the Regulation is, overall, of high quality. There are still
a number of areas where improvement is needed, and the Commission
(Eurostat) continues to work with the Member States to resolve
issues at a technical level. A number of measures are being
implemented or are planned to improve quality.
Measures being taken for improving data
quality: the European strategy on
environmental accounts for the period 2014 to 2018 shall
co-ordinate European efforts and paves the way for possible new
modules in the Regulation. The strategy programme of work for the
period 2014 to 2018 focuses on:
- consolidating the quality of the accounts in Annexes I
to III to the Regulation (air emissions, environmental taxes and
material flows);
- promoting the use of existing environmental economic
accounts;
- improving timeliness of the accounts, including by
developing early estimates, in order to make environmental policy
aspects more prominent in economic planning;
- implementing the accounts in Annexes IV to VI to the
Regulation (expenditure on environmental protection, the
environmental goods and services sector and physical energy flow
accounts);
- investing in statistical infrastructure (i.e.,
reference methodologies, classifications, specialised software,
etc.) to improve the availability, quality and usefulness of the
environmental accounts;
- developing methodologies for and launching voluntary
data collections in other areas (water and forests, environmental
subsidies and similar transfers and expenditure on resource
management).
Of the areas where new developments are taking place,
environmental subsidies accounts is perhaps the most
promising in the short term. A regular, annual voluntary data
collection exercise was introduced in 2015, with the agreement and
cooperation of the Member States. Experimental work on ecosystem
accounts will also be a focus.
At the same time, work is also being carried out to
further improve the quality of the existing modules.
The Commission (Eurostat) continues to assist the
Member States in improving the quality of accounts in a variety
of ways, including:
- providing grants for pilot studies and quality
improvements;
- reducing the time delay in the availability of data by
producing early estimates;
- setting up voluntary annual data collection exercises
in preparation for obligatory reporting;
- producing EU aggregates even where some Member State
data are missing;
- publishing handbooks and providing methodological
guidance;
- facilitating training courses under the European
Statistical Training Programme as well as promoting the exchange of
experience between countries.