EEA publishes annual report for 2000

The European Environment Agency today published its annual report for 2000.

Click here to download the full report and the summary.

The report gives an overview of the many publications issued during the year and other support provided to policy development and assessment in the EU.

It also includes information on other activities, such as networking with institutions in EEA member countries and international organisations, and development of the Agency's web-based reference centre for environmental information.

Finally, important developments in the mandate and organisation of the EEA itself are covered.

Last year was a milestone for the Agency due to the publication of its first indicator-based reports, Environmental signals 2000 and the first report from the Transport and Environment Reporting Mechanism (TERM).

TERM sets the pattern for developing indicators on integrating the environment into other sectors, such as energy or agriculture. Indicator-based reports are the backbone of the Agency's future reporting strategy.

Other major reports focussed on the Mediterranean (together with the UN Environment Programme's Mediterranean Action Plan), soils (together with UNEP), trends in greenhouse gas emissions and the use of eco-taxes.

Negotiations for the 13 candidate countries in central and eastern Europe and the Mediterranean area to join the Agency were initiated and successfully concluded during 2000, making the EEA the first EU body to open up to enlargement.

Following ratification by both sides, the membership agreements for six countries — Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia — will enter into force on 1 August 2001.

It is anticipated that the agreements with the remaining countries will take effect over the coming months, taking the EEA's membership to 31. Formal participation in the Agency's work is expected to take effect from 1 January 2002 for all countries that have ratified the agreements by then.

The Agency's website is now the main channel for disseminating reports. On average the site saw more than 100,000 user sessions and received almost two million hits per month during 2000. A new data service was launched to provide improved access to the data underpinning EEA reports.

Seven of the Agency's eight Topic Centres — centres of expertise designated to carry out specific tasks — came to the end of their agreements with the EEA at the end of 2000 as planned. It was decided to concentrate work on fewer and more integrated centres for the next three-year period.

Five new centres have been designated and started work this year on the following topics:

• Water
• Air and climate change
• Nature protection and biodiversity
• Waste and material flows
• Terrestrial environment.