The European Environment Agency - Framework for international engagement
by Lorenzo Pietro Spiller
The European Environment Agency (EEA), the EU agency tasked with providing information on the environment and coordinating national environmental bodies, recently published a “framework for international engagement”,
a procedural document aimed at setting out and clarifying means and objectives of the EEA international activities in the 2018-2020 timeframe, including, among others, improving and intensifying the relationships and exchange of data with the EU neighborhood, international organisations, UN bodies and global conventions, non-European countries and region.
Said framework points out that the EEAS has three potential roles within the international stage, and, in particular:
a) the role of producer of data and information;
b) the role of networking facilitator among national and global policy makers; and
c) the role of influencer, exploiting its influence and building-capacity in networking to channel decisions and resolution of non-EU and global decision makers towards its objectives in the field of environment.
All the roles above, which, in general terms, largely reflect the roles of the European Union within the international stage, can positively affect the discussions in the roundtables such as the Climate Change Conference (COP 24) to be held in Poland at the end of 2018.
Moreover, the international cooperation and interrelation between national and regional environment agencies may pave the way for the establishment of an “international environment agency” within the UN, entrusted with executive, supervisory and possibly enforcement powers to ensure the application of the body of rules in the field of environment and sustainable development included in UN treaties and agreements.
In conclusion, the initiative of enacting a transparent and self-explanatory framework for the international engagement of the EEA certainly goes in the direction of a more coherent and comprehensive activity of such agency in the next crucial years.
https://www.eea.europa.eu/
https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/eea-framework-for-international-engagement