Regulation 2019/1010 - Alignment of reporting obligations in the field of legislation related to the environment - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 170/115

In order to address the need for implementation and compliance information, amendments to several Union legislative acts related to the environment should be introduced, taking into account the results of the Commission report of 9 June 2017 on Actions to Streamline Environmental Reporting and the accompanying Fitness Check of Reporting and Monitoring of EU Environment Policy of 9 June 2017 (together referred to as the ‘Fitness Check on reporting’).

This Regulation seeks to modernise information management and ensure a more consistent approach to the legislative acts within its scope by simplifying reporting so as to reduce the administrative burden, enhancing the database for future evaluations and increasing transparency for the benefit of the public, each time in accordance with the circumstances.

It is necessary that accessibility to data should ensure that the administrative burden on all entities remains as limited as possible, especially on non-governmental entities such as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Such accessibility requires active dissemination at national level in accordance with Directives 2003/4/EC (3) and 2007/2/EC (4) of the European Parliament and of the Council and their implementing rules, to ensure the appropriate infrastructure for public access, reporting and data-sharing between public authorities.

The data and the process of Member States’ comprehensive and timely reporting are essential for the Commission to monitor, review and assess the performance of the legislation against the objectives it pursues in order to inform any future evaluation of the legislation, in accordance with paragraph 22 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making (5). It is appropriate to add provisions to several legislative acts in the environmental sector for the purpose of their future evaluation, on the basis of data collected during implementation, possibly complemented by additional scientific and analytical data. In that context, there is a need for relevant data that will allow for a better assessment of the efficiency, effectiveness, relevance, coherence and added value of Union legislation, hence the necessity to ensure appropriate reporting mechanisms that can also serve as indicators for this purpose both for decision-makers and for the general public.

It is necessary to amend the reporting obligations laid down in Articles 10 and 17 of Council Directive 86/278/EEC (6). The obligation to report to the Commission should be simplified and, at the same time, Member States should be required to ensure a higher level of transparency, whereby the required information will be made available in an easily accessible manner by electronic means and in accordance with Directives 2003/4/EC and 2007/2/EC, in particular on public access, data-sharing and services. Given the overriding importance of enabling Union citizens to quickly access environmental information, it is essential that Member States make data publicly available as fast as technically feasible with the aim of having the information available within three months of the year end.

In accordance with the evaluation of 13 December 2016 of Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (7), there is a need to streamline the reporting deadlines for noise maps and action plans to allow sufficient time for public consultation of action plans. To that end, the deadline for the review or revision of the action plans should be postponed, once only, by one year so that the deadline of the fourth round of action plans should not be 18 July 2023 but 18 July 2024. Thus, from the fourth round onwards, Member States will have approximately two years between making the noise maps and completing the review or revision of action plans instead of one year as is currently the case. For the subsequent rounds of action plans, the five-year cycle for the review or revision will then resume. Moreover, in order to better meet the objectives of Directive 2002/49/EC and to provide a basis for developing measures at Union level, reporting by Member States should be carried out by electronic means. It is also necessary to enhance public participation by requiring comprehensible, accurate and comparable information to be made publicly available while aligning this obligation to other Union legislative acts, such as Directive 2007/2/EC, without duplicating practical requirements.

The Union is committed to strengthening the evidence base of Directive 2004/35/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (8) in a transparent way, as undertaken by the Commission’s Expert Group on that Directive. In order to facilitate comparable evidence, guidelines providing a common understanding of ‘environmental damage’ as defined in Article 2 of Directive 2004/35/EC should be developed by the Commission.

Based on the Commission report of 20 July 2016 on the implementation of Directive 2007/2/EC and the accompanying evaluation of 10 August 2016, it is appropriate, with a view to simplifying the implementation of that Directive and reducing administrative burden related to monitoring by Member States, to no longer require Member States to send to the Commission triennial reports and no longer require the Commission to present to the European Parliament and to the Council a summary report, because the Fitness Check on reporting confirmed the limited use of such reports. Nevertheless, the Commission should continue to carry out, every five years, an evaluation of Directive 2007/2/EC and make that evaluation publicly available.

The Commission’s Fitness Check of 16 December 2016 of the EU Nature Legislation (Birds and Habitats Directives), that is Directive 2009/147/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (9) and Council Directive 92/43/EEC (10), concluded that a three-year reporting cycle is required under Directive 2009/147/EC. However, in practice a reporting cycle of six years, as under Directive 92/43/EEC, has already been applied for Directive 2009/147/EC, with a similar primary focus on providing up-to-date information on status and trends of species. The need for a streamlined implementation of Directives 92/43/EEC and 2009/147/EC justifies the need to adapt the legislation to the joint practice, by ensuring a status assessment every six years, while acknowledging that Member States still need to carry out the necessary monitoring activities for some vulnerable species. That joint practice should also facilitate the preparation of reports every six years on application of the Directives that Member States are to submit to the Commission. In order to ensure an assessment of the policy progress, Member States should be required to provide information, in particular, on the status and trends of wild bird species, the threats and pressures on them, the conservation measures taken and the contribution of the network of Special Protection Areas to the objectives of Directive 2009/147/EC.

In order to improve transparency and reduce the administrative burden, it is necessary to amend the reporting obligations laid down in Articles 43, 54 and 57 of Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (11). It is necessary to establish a central, open-access searchable database for non-technical project summaries and related retrospective assessments, and confer implementing powers on the Commission. Those implementing powers cover establishing a common format for the submission of non-technical project summaries and related retrospective assessments, as well as a common format and information content for submitting information on implementation and statistical information. It is also necessary to replace the statistical reporting by the Commission every three years by a requirement on the Commission to set up and maintain a dynamic central database and to release statistical information on a yearly basis.

In accordance with the findings of the Commission REFIT evaluation of 13 December 2017 of Regulation (EC) No 166/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council (12), it is necessary to amend or abolish the reporting obligations laid down in that Regulation. In order to enhance coherence with reporting under Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (13), implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission to establish the type, format and frequency of information to be made available under Regulation (EC) No 166/2006, and to abolish the reporting format currently set out in that Regulation. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (14). Given the overriding importance of enabling Union citizens to quickly access environmental information, it is essential that Member States and the Commission make data publicly available as fast as technically feasible with the aim of having the information available within three months of the year end, including by progressing towards that objective through an implementing act under Regulation (EC) No 166/2006. It is also necessary to amend Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 166/2006 on confidentiality to ensure greater transparency of reporting to the Commission. To minimise the administrative burden on Member States and the Commission, it is further necessary to abolish the reporting obligations laid down in Articles 16 and 17 of that Regulation, as these obligations provide information that is of limited value or does not correspond to policy needs.

To improve and facilitate the access of the public to information on the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council (15), the data provided by the Member States on the implementation of that Regulation should be made publicly available by the Commission through a Union-wide overview of those data. In order to increase consistency of information and to facilitate the monitoring of the functioning of that Regulation, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission to lay down the format and procedure for Member States to make information available, and the frequency and period of provision of information should be aligned to that of Council Regulation (EC) No 2173/2005 (16). Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011.

To improve and facilitate the access of the public to information on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 2173/2005, the data provided by the Member States on the implementation of that Regulation should be made publicly available by the Commission through a Union-wide overview. On the basis of the experience that the Commission and the Member States have gained from the first year of Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade licencing, the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 2173/2005 related to reporting need to be updated. The Commission, in exercising its implementing powers to lay down the format and procedure for Member States to make information available, should be assisted by the Committee established in Article 11 of that Regulation. Furthermore, the provisions on evaluation of that Regulation need to be updated.

Reporting under Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97 (17) needs to be streamlined and aligned with the reporting requirements under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) of 3 March 1973, to which the Union and Member States are parties. The reporting requirements under CITES were amended at the 17th CITES Conference of the Parties which took place in 2016, to adjust the frequency of the reporting for measures on the implementation of CITES and to create a new reporting mechanism on illegal trade in CITES-listed species. Those changes need to be reflected in Regulation (EC) No 338/97.

The European Environment Agency is already carrying out important tasks in the monitoring and reporting of Union environmental legislation and those tasks should be explicitly introduced in the relevant legislation. For other pieces of environmental legislation, the role and resourcing of the European Environment Agency in relation to supporting the Commission in environmental reporting will be addressed following the finalisation of the ongoing evaluation.

Regulations (EC) No 166/2006, (EU) No 995/2010, (EC) No 338/97 and (EC) No 2173/2005, and Directives 2002/49/EC, 2004/35/EC, 2007/2/EC, 2009/147/EC, 2010/63/EU and 86/278/EEC should therefore be amended accordingly,

in Article 2, the following points are added:

(*1)  Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) (OJ L 108, 25.4.2007, p. 1).’;"

Article 10 is replaced by the following:

‘Article 10

• 1. 

  Member States shall ensure that up-to-date records are kept, and that those records register:

Spatial data services shall be used to present the spatial data sets included in the information registered in those records.

• 2. 

  The records referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be made available and easily accessible to the public for each calendar year, within eight months of the end of the relevant calendar year, in a consolidated format as laid down in the Annex to Commission Decision 94/741/EC (*2) or another consolidated format provided pursuant to Article 17 of this Directive.

Member States shall submit to the Commission, by electronic means, the information referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph.

• 3. 

  Information on the methods of treatment and the results of the analyses shall be released to the competent authorities.

(*2)  Commission Decision 94/741/EC of 24 October 1994 concerning questionnaires for Member States reports on the implementation of certain Directives in the waste sector (implementation of Council Directive 91/692/EEC) (OJ L 296, 17.11.1994, p. 42).’;"

Article 17 is replaced by the following:

‘Article 17

The Commission is empowered to lay down, by means of implementing acts, a format in accordance with which Member States are to provide information on the implementation of this Directive as required by Article 10. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 15(2).

The Commission services shall publish a Union-wide overview including maps on the basis of the data made available by the Member States pursuant to Article 10 and this Article.’

in Article 3, the following point is added:

in Article 8, paragraph 5 is replaced by the following:

‘5.   The action plans shall be reviewed, and revised if necessary, when a major development occurs affecting the existing noise situation, and at least every five years after the date of the approval of those plans.

The reviews and revisions, that in accordance with the first subparagraph would be due to take place in 2023, shall be postponed to take place no later than 18 July 2024.’;

in Article 9, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:

‘1.   Member States shall ensure that the strategic noise maps they have made, and where appropriate adopted, and the action plans they have drawn up are made available and disseminated to the public in accordance with relevant Union legislative acts, in particular Directives 2003/4/EC (*3) and 2007/2/EC (*4) of the European Parliament and of the Council, and in conformity with Annexes IV and V to this Directive, including by means of available information technologies.

(*3)  Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public access to environmental information and repealing Council Directive 90/313/EEC (OJ L 41, 14.2.2003, p. 26)."

(*4)  Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) (OJ L 108, 25.4.2007, p. 1).’;"

in Article 10, paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:

‘2.   Member States shall ensure that the information from strategic noise maps and summaries of the action plans as referred to in Annex VI are sent to the Commission within six months of the dates laid down in Articles 7 and 8 respectively. For that purpose, Member States shall only report the information by electronic means to a mandatory data repository to be established by the Commission by means of implementing acts. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 13(2). In the event that a Member State wants to update information, it shall describe the differences between the updated and original information and the reasons for the update when making the updated information available to the data repository.’;

in Annex VI, point 3 is replaced by the following:

in Article 14, paragraph 2 is deleted;

Article 18 is replaced by the following:

‘Article 18

Information on implementation and evidence base

• 1. 

  The Commission shall collect information from Member States, that has been disseminated in accordance with Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (*5), and as far as available, on the experience gained in the application of this Directive. That information shall cover the data set out in Annex VI to this Directive and be collected by 30 April 2022 and every five years thereafter.

• 2. 

  On the basis of the information referred to in paragraph 1, the Commission shall carry out an evaluation of this Directive and publish it before 30 April 2023 and every five years thereafter.

• 3. 

  By 31 December 2020, the Commission shall develop guidelines providing a common understanding of the term “environmental damage” as defined in Article 2.

(*5)  Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public access to environmental information and repealing Council Directive 90/313/EEC (OJ L 41, 14.2.2003, p. 26).’;"

Annex VI is replaced by the following:

‘ANNEX VI

INFORMATION AND DATA REFERRED TO IN ARTICLE 18(1)

The information referred to in Article 18(1) shall cover cases of environmental damage under this Directive, with the following information and data for each instance:

Member States shall include any other relevant information on the experience gained from the implementation of this Directive.’

Article 21 is amended as follows:

Article 23 is replaced by the following:

‘Article 23

The European Environment Agency shall publish and update annually the Union-wide overview on the basis of metadata and data made available by Member States through their network services in accordance with Article 21. The Union-wide overview shall include, as appropriate, indicators for outputs, results and impacts of this Directive, Union-wide overview maps and Member State overview reports.

The Commission shall, no later than 1 January 2022 and at least every five years thereafter, carry out an evaluation of this Directive, and of its implementation, and make it publicly available. That evaluation shall be based, inter alia, on the following elements:

Article 12 is amended as follows:

the following Article is inserted:

‘Article 16a

Committee procedure

• 1. 

  The Commission shall be assisted by a committee. That committee shall be a committee within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (*7).

• 2. 

  Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall apply.

Where the committee delivers no opinion, the Commission shall not adopt the draft implementing act and the third subparagraph of Article 5(4) of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall apply.

(*7)  Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011 laying down the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by Member States of the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers (OJ L 55, 28.2.2011, p. 13).’"

Article 43 is amended as follows:

Article 54 is amended as follows:

Article 57 is deleted.

in Article 5(1), the second subparagraph is replaced by the following:

‘The operator of each facility that undertakes one or more of the activities specified in Annex I, above the applicable capacity thresholds specified therein, shall communicate, by electronic means, to its competent authority the information identifying the facility in accordance with the format referred to in Article 7(2) unless that information is already available to the competent authority.’;

in Article 7, paragraphs 2 and 3 are replaced by the following:

‘2.   Member States shall provide, each year, to the Commission by electronic transfer a report containing all the data referred to in Article 5(1) and (2) in a format and by a date to be established by the Commission by means of implementing acts. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 19(2). The reporting date shall be, in any case, no later than 11 months after the end of the reporting year.

• 3. 

  The Commission services, assisted by the European Environment Agency, shall incorporate the information reported by the Member States into the European PRTR within one month of completion of reporting by the Member States in accordance with paragraph 2.’;

Article 11 is replaced by the following:

‘Article 11

Confidentiality

Whenever information is considered confidential by a Member State in accordance with Article 4 of Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (*8), the report referred to in Article 7(2) of this Regulation for the reporting year concerned shall indicate separately for each facility which information cannot be made public and provide the reasons for this.

(*8)  Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public access to environmental information and repealing Council Directive 90/313/EEC (OJ L 41, 14.2.2003, p. 26).’;"

Articles 16 and 17 are deleted;

Annex III is deleted.

Article 8 is replaced by the following:

‘Article 8

• 1. 

  Member States shall make available to the public and to the Commission, at the latest by 30 April of each year, information on the application of this Regulation during the previous calendar year.

• 2. 

  The Commission shall establish, by means of implementing acts, the format and the procedure for Member States to make available the information referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 11(3).

• 3. 

  Based on the information referred to in paragraph 1, the Commission services shall make publicly available, on an annual basis, a Union-wide overview on the basis of the data submitted by Member States.’;

Article 9 is replaced by the following:

‘Article 9

By December 2021 and every five years thereafter, the Commission shall, on the basis of information, in particular the information referred to in Article 8(1), and experience with the application of this Regulation, review the functioning and effectiveness of this Regulation. In doing so, it shall take into account the progress on implementation of the voluntary Partnership Agreements. The Commission shall report to the European Parliament and to the Council on the result of the review every five years and accompany such reports where appropriate, by proposals for improvement of the FLEGT licensing scheme.’

points (b), (c) and (d) are replaced by the following:

the following point is added: