European Environment Agency, European information and observation (amend. Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90)

The European Environment Agency (EEA) should tender advice to Parliament as well as to the Commission and Member States, the Committee suggested. The committee adopted a report by its chairman, Mr Ken COLLINS (PES, UK), on a Commission proposal for changes to the EEA, which officially opened in August 1995 with the aim of providing the Commission and Member States with objective and comparable information on Europe's environment. While welcoming the proposal as a whole and praising the work of the EEA to date, Mr Collins felt that the Commission had overlooked the important role played by Parliament in the legislative process. Hence the need to include in the review proposal a new obligation requiring the EEA to respond to requests for advice from Community institutions other than the Commission.The committee also felt that the agency should be able to offer advice on its own initiative. In addition, members want the EEA to submit a performance report next year to Parliament as well as the Commission. The committee also amended the proposal with a view to ensuring that the Commission cooperates with the EEA by using information provided by the EEA when proposing initiatives or in connection with the implementation and enforcement of legislation. The repository of environmental information which is to be set up should contain a data register and the EEA's multiannual work programme should have a multiannual budget. Information should be disseminated in the official languages of the Union, the committee felt,"wherever possible".�