Assessment methods and tools

Data services overview

Data services overview

Countries data reporting

Countries data reporting

EEA activities

Evaluation of policy effectiveness plays an important role in the formulation and improvement of policies. Assessing the effects of EU environmental instruments, and whether specific measures have actually been effective in delivering expected results, is an essential task. We have to ask difficult questions such as: are environmental policies actually working, are they cost-effective? If not, how can they be improved? These are the questions the EEA addresses in its work on policy effectiveness and market-based instruments. Currently, particular attention is devoted to the potential of environmental tax reform.

Policy instruments

Policies have a key role in determining the state of our environment. The EU has 35 years' experience of environmental policy-making, during which time well over 200 legal acts have been put in place and strategic paths have been defined. Initially, policy focused on regulating technical standards. Gradually, the spectrum of policy instruments has broadened, recognising that there is no single universal policy tool that can provide solutions to all problems.

Economic instruments

A database on economic instruments used in environmental policy.