B1.7 European Environment Agency
The European Environment Agency is an independent body whose objective is to protect and improve the environment in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty and Community environment action programmes, with a view to establishing sustainable development within the Community.
To achieve this, the Agency must provide the Community and the Member States with information which is objective, reliable and comparable at European level and which will enable them to take the measures required to protect the environment, evaluate the implementation of the measures and ensure that the public is properly informed on the state of the environment.
The Agency carries out the following functions:
- recording, collecting, assessing and transmitting data on the state of the environment;
- providing the Community and the Member States with the objective information that they require to draw up and implement appropriate and effective environment policies;
- helping to monitor environmental measures;
- working on the comparability of data at European level;
- promoting the development and application of environmental forecasting techniques;
- ensuring that reliable information on the environment is widely circulated.
The principal areas of work of the Agency are:
- air quality;
- water quality;
- the state of the soil and of fauna and flora;
- land use and natural resources;
- waste management;
- noise emissions;
- chemical substances;
- protection of coastal areas and the marine environment.