European Environment Agency

European Environment Agency
Administrative center		Copenhagen, Denmark
"Official languages"		Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, Greek, English, Spanish, Estonian, Finnish, French, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Malti, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Swedish, Turkish
Membership		32 countries
Leaders
-	Director	Jacqueline McGlade
-	Chairman of the management board	Karsten Sach
Establishment
-	Regulation adopted	1990
-	Headquartered	1994
Website eea.europa.eu

European Environment Agency (EEA), agency of the European Union devoted to establishing a monitoring network for the monitoring of the European environment. It is governed by a Management Board composed of representatives of the governments of its 32 member states, a European Commission representative and two scientists appointed by the European Parliament, assisted by a committee of scientists.

It was established by EEC Regulation 1210/1990, as amended by EEC Regulation 933/1999 and EC Regulation 401/2009; and became operational in 1994. It is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Professor Jacqueline McGlade is the current Executive Director of the agency.

As an EU body, member states of the European Union are automatically members; however the Council Regulation establishing it provided that other states may become members of it by means of agreements concluded between them and the EU.

It was the first EU body to open its membership to the 13 candidate countries (pre-2004 enlargement).

As of February 2009 it has 32 members:

• 27 EU member states
• 3 European Economic Area members: Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein
• 1 EU candidate country: Turkey
• Switzerland since 1 April 2006

As of October 2008, 172 staff members are listed on the EEA's website.^[1]

EEA is an active member of the EPA Network^[2]

European Topic Centre on Land Use and Spatial Information

The European Topic Centre Land Use and Spatial Information (ETC-LUSI)^[3] is an international consortium under contract to the European Environment Agency (EEA). The consortium is led by the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and supported by the Spanish Ministry of Environment, Marine and Rural Affaires, the Ministry of Environment of the Government of Andalusia and the Ministry of Environment of the Government of Catalonia from Spain. UAB was also leading the former European Topic Centre on Terrestrial Environment (ETC-TE). ETC-LUSI continues tasks initiated within ETC-TE.

ETC-LUSI is part of the European Environmental Information and Observation Network (EIONET)^[4] and a support to other Eionet partners. The activities have an important component on networking with various experts in the member countries on data harmonisation, quality issues and exchange of data and in capacity building. ETC-LUSI assists countries in discussing options for improving national information systems related with the topic “land use and spatial information”.

European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change

The EEA's building on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen

The European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change (ETC/ACC) assists the European Environment Agency (EEA) in its support of European Union (EU) policy in the field of air pollution and climate change. It is a consortium of 14 European institutions, established in 2001 by the EEA, with an annual budget of about 2 millions Euros, with RIVM-MNP as the lead institution. In March 2004 the EEA extended the contract with the consortium through 2006.

The ETC/ACC reports on the progress of EU environmental policy on air pollutant emissions,^[5] air quality, and climate change issues. The ETC/ACC participates in relevant reports issued by the EEA, collects data concerning the current state of the environment, and harmonises European air quality monitoring networks and reporting obligations.

The ETC/ACC also maintains an online copy of the Model Documentation System (MDS)^[6] which is a catalogue of most of the air quality and air pollution dispersion models developed and/or used in Europe. The MDS catalogue listings include the name, description and support contacts for each model as well as other pertinent technical details. The MDS was developed at the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece, by Prof. Nicolas Moussiopoulos.

Renewable energy

EEA Europe's onshore and offshore wind energy potential report,^[7] confirms wind energy could power Europe many times over. The report highlights wind power’s potential in 2020 as three times greater than Europe’s expected electricity demand, rising to a factor of seven by 2030.^[8]

Reference grid and projection

The EEA recommends for pan-European mapping the usage of the European Terrestrial Reference System 1989, associated with a Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection for statistical analysis and display (ETRS-LAEA, EPSG code EPSG:3035), a Lambert conformal conic projection for conformal mapping at scales smaller or equal to 1:500,000 (ETRS-LCC, code EPSG:3034), and a Transverse Mercator projection for conformal mapping at scales larger than 1:500,000 (ETRS-TMzn, codes EPSG:3038 to EPSG:3051).^[9]

Discomap

DISCOMAP is the new gis geonode of the EEA. It is hosting many different map services which can be used for free. This covers biodiversity, air, water and land.

International cooperation

In addition to its 32 member and six cooperating countries (from the Western Balkans), the EEA also cooperates and fosters partnerships with its neighbours and other countries and regions, mostly in the context of the European Neighbourhood Policy:^[10]

• EaP states: Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgira
• UfM states: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia
• other ENPI states: Russia
• Central Asia states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

Additionally the EEA cooperates with multiple international organizations and the corresponding agencies of the following countries:

• United States of America (Environmental Protection Agency)
• Canada (Environment Canada)
• PR China (State Environmental Protection Administration)

See also

• Agencies of the European Union
• List of atmospheric dispersion models
• Confederation of European Environmental Engineering Societies
• Coordination of Information on the Environment
• European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA)
• GLOBE Europe

References

1. ^ EEA Organisational chart
2. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPA_Network Network of Heads of European Environment Agencies
3. ^ EIONET website page
4. ^ EIONET website page
5. ^ EMEP/CORINAIR Emission Inventory Guidebook - 2006
6. ^ MDS - Model Documentation System
7. ^ http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/europes-onshore-and-offshore-wind-energy-potential
8. ^ http://www.eolicenergynews.org/?p=1329#more-1329
9. ^ "Short Proceedings of the 1st European Workshop on Reference Grids, Ispra, 27–29 October 2003". European Environment Agency. 2004-06-14. p. 6. http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu/Projects/Alpsis/Docs/ref_grid_sh_proc_draft.pdf. Retrieved 2009-08-27. 
10. ^ http://www.eea.europa.eu/about-us/international-cooperation

External links

• European Environment Agency website
• European Topic Centre on Land Use and Spatial Information (ETC LUSI)
• European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change(ETC/ACC)
• Model Documentation System (MDS)
• The European Environment Agency's near real-time ozone map (ozoneweb)
• EnviroWindows.

Coordinates: 55°40′52″N 12°35′12″E / 55.681208°N 12.586609°E / 55.681208; 12.586609