REPORTING ON ENVIRONMENTAL MEASURES

TOWARDS MORE 'SOUND AND EFFECTIVE' EU ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES

The EEA’s ‘REM’ project (Reporting on Environmental Measures) reviewed the availability of the data and information needed to assess the effects and effectiveness of EU environmental policies. REM examined in detail existing reporting requirements in relation to policies, plans and programmes, and the experience of Member States in responding to them. It sought to identify the reasons why these succeeded, failed or were of limited use, and to highlight lessons for future legislation. In doing so, the project sought to address the following fundamental questions:

• Why is it important to evaluate the effects/ effectiveness of EU environmental policies?
• How much do we currently know about effects/effectiveness?
• How could we get towards a methodology for evaluating policies?

Who has been involved?

Improving reporting and evaluation depends on the close collaboration of a range of players at national and EU levels. For this reason, REM brought together a Steering Group comprising representatives of Member States (specifically Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK); the European Commission; the EEA; OECD; and the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), which acted as consultants to the project.

The Steering Group met five times during the two years of the project. It made proposals for studies and reviewed and commented on the various REM papers. It also considered the best way in which REM could contribute to a number of other initiatives on reporting and evaluation, such as the review of reporting being proposed by the European Commission in its Communication of January 2001 on the 6th Environment Action Programme

The Outcomes

1. An overview paper, summarising the findings of REM;
   Reporting on Environmental Measures. Are we being effective?
2. General papers and case studies
   A set of papers dealing with different aspects was produced during the project. Only electronic versions are available. To download a paper, click on its title.
   • The contribution of EU monitoring and reporting to ‘sound and effective’ environmental policy-making
   • Reporting by EU MS on environmental policies and their effects: Summary of EU reporting requirements and the example of CO2 reduction programmes
   • Reporting on the effects and effectiveness of measures taken to implement EU environmental legislation: Case study – the waste directives

   Reporting and evaluation

   • Defining criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of EU environmental measures
   • Types of information requested by reporting requirements in EU environmental legislation
   • Possible institutional mechanisms for evaluating effectiveness
   • Towards a methodology for evaluating the effects of measures taken to implement EU environmental legislation

Note: all the above are available as PDF files. More information on PDF can be found here.