Steen Gade elected vice-chairman of EEA Management Board

Steen Gade elected vice-chairman of EEA Management Board

Steen Gade, Director General of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (Miljøstyrelsen), has been elected a vice-chairman of the Management Board of the European Environment Agency (EEA).

The Management Board elected Mr Gade to one of the three vice-chairmanships at its meeting on 20 March. As a vice-chairman Mr Gade will sit on the EEA's six-member Bureau, whose executive powers the Management Board agreed to strengthen in preparation for the forthcoming expansion of the Agency's membership to 31 countries.

Mr Gade, head of Miljøstyrelsen since 1999, replaces Markku Nurmi, Director-General of the Finnish Ministry of the Environment, who has been a vice-chairman since the Management Board's inception in 1994, serving two consecutive three-year terms.

Domingo Jiménez-Beltrán, Executive Director of the EEA, said: "With Steen Gade the EEA is getting a vice-chairman and Bureau member with a very strategic mind whose enthusiasm for enlargement of the EU and of the EEA will be an enormous help as we grow to 31 countries over the months ahead.

"Steen Gade and his organisation command tremendous respect for the contribution they are making to environmental protection and sustainable development and I am certain that, in particular through the strengthened Bureau, he will prove every bit as effective and supportive as Markku Nurmi has been."

Notes to Editors

The European Environment Agency aims to support sustainable development and to help achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe's environment through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy making agents and the public. The Agency is the hub of the European Environment Information and Observation Network (EIONET), a network of environmental bodies and institutes across Europe.

Created by the European Union (EU) in 1993 and located in Copenhagen, the EEA is open to all countries that share its objectives and are able to participate in its activities. It currently has 18 member countries - the 15 EU member states, plus Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, which are members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The 13 countries in central and eastern Europe and the Mediterranean area that are seeking accession to the EU are expected to join the EEA in the coming months, making the Agency the first EU body to welcome these countries.