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EPA Network
Last changed:
11/02/11
EPA Network stands for Network of the Heads of Environment ProtectionAgencies. It is an informal network bringing together the directors of nationalenvironment agencies across Europe.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) hosted the firstmeeting of the EPA Network in November 2003. Currently, environmentalauthorities from 31 countries and regions as well as the European EnvironmentAgency are members of the Network. The European Commission alsoparticipates in the meetings as a permanent guest, the European Parliament onan occasional guest basis.
The network functions through two principal activities:
- Meetings take place twice a year (in spring and autumn).
- In addition, working groups – so-called Interest Groups - are set up to deal with specific topics, and there are also topic-specific informal working groups.
To date there have been the following network meetings:
- Copenhagen (November 2003)
- Rome (March 2004)
- Stirling (September 2004)
- Ljubljana (March 2005)
- Prague (September 2005)
- Vienna (March 2006)
- Dessau-Roßlau (September 2006)
- Helsinki (April 2007)
- Zagreb (September 2007)
- Oslo (April 2008)
- Gent (September 2008)
- Locarno (May 2009)
- Dublin (September 2009)
- Bilbao (March 2010)
- Krakow (September 2010)
The next meeting is scheduled to take place in Malta in March 2011, the meeting in autumnwill take place in the Netherlands.
The central tasks of the Network are:
- cultivation of regular and personal contact at directorial level;
- intensification of professional and technical input to the European Commission;
- intensification of exchange of information and experience;
- identification of common problems and the possible development of common solutions;
- forging of alliances and the development of common positions vis-à-vis the European Commission;
- improvement of information exchange and data provision on the state of the environment;
- Assessment by Member agencies of their own environmental performance.
Care is also taken to ensure that the Network does not duplicate theactivities of existing networks such as IMPEL or Eionet.
The UBA is a member of the following working groups of the EPA Network:
- Better Regulation
- Climate Change and Adaptation
- Better regulation
- Climate change and adaptation
- Contaminated Sites and Soil Protection
- Environment and Health (virtual group)
- International cooperation
- Natural Resources (led by UBA)
Working group outputs and reports:
http://epanet.ew.eea.europa.eu/fol249409
Participation in theEPA Network has various advantages for UBA:
- Possibility of regular contact at directorial level;
- Promotion of the exchange of information and experience between specialists (“learning from one another”);
- UBA can make its products, working results, and standpoints known to an international audience which is not restricted to specialists alone;
- The division of tasks is encouraged and synergies can be clearly seen;
- In particular, the UBA can influence European processes more strongly by providing scientific advice for policymakers jointly with other environment protection agencies.
It is also useful for the Commission to have the opportunity to find outat an early stage about potential problems in the implementation of Europeanenvironment policy at the national level.
More information about the EPA Network:
