Memorandum of Understanding between the
European Environment Agency (EEA) and Eurostat
BASIS AND
PRINCIPLES OF
CO-OPERATION
1. The purpose of this Memorandum of Understanding
is to elaborate on the co-operation between EEA and Eurostat first
initiated in May 1995. Its intention is to establish a true partnership
which capitalises on the established competences of both parties,
clarifies responsibilities, improves working procedures and increases
overall efficiency.
2. It recognises that the objectives and
priorities of both parties imply many areas of potential overlap,
that continual collaboration is needed to build on the existing
strengths of both organisations and to avoid duplication of work,
and that joint activities should be structured so as to build
an efficient and transparent environmental information system.
3. Co-operation between the EEA and Eurostat
shall be based on the principles of reciprocity and work sharing
with the objectives:
— of assuring a regular flow of information
between the two parties;
— of improving the quality and compatibility
of the data compiled by both parties;
— of improving access to this data
for clients and partners, including other agencies, governments,
decision-and policy-makers and the general public;
— of streamlining the data demands
to countries, so as to reduce the burden on respondents and national
authorities.
4. The legal basis for this agreement is
Article 1 and Annex B of the new Council Regulation (EEC Regulation
933/99), amending EEC Regulation 1210/90 of 7 May 1990, which
established the EEA. Annex B specifies that the EEA information
system will as far as possible make use of the statistical information
system established by Eurostat and the national statistical services
in the Member States. Annex B also specifies that Eurostat's statistical
programme in the field of the environment will be agreed between
the Executive Director of the Agency and the Director-General
of Eurostat and will be submitted for approval to the Management
Board of the Agency and the Statistical Programme Committee of
Eurostat.
OBJECTIVES AND
PRIORITIES OF
BOTH PARTIES
5. It is recognised that:
— Eurostat is the Community authority
responsible for implementation of Regulation No 322/97 on Community
statistics. Its main objectives are laid down in the five year
statistical programme (1998-2002). Eurostat coordinates the efforts
of the National Statistical Institutes of the Member States and
other bodies responsible in each Member State for producing Community
statistics so as to produce objective, reliable, comparable and
relevant statistics for the development of the EU and for monitoring
of Community policies, and this according to the Community five
year statistical programme.
— Eurostat has a long experience in
collecting economic and social statistics, covering among others,
agriculture, transport, energy and tourism, and has a well-established
network for this data collection.
— The basis for the statistical programme
as far as environment statistics are concerned is the revised
Fifth Environmental Action Programme. Thus the statistical programme
includes the development and dissemination of environment statistics,
the production of environmental pressure indicators, the development
of statistics linking environment to the economic sectors and
the construction of a set of satellite accounts for the environment.
— This process of harmonising statistical
data also extends to members of EFTA and to the candidate Accession
countries. Eurostat also contributes actively at world level to
the development of major international statistical norms.
6. It is also recognised that
— the EEA was established to provide
Community institutions and EEA member countries with the objective,
reliable and comparable information needed to frame and to implement
sound and effective environmental policies;
— the Agency has established the European
Environmental Information and Observation Network (EIONET) with
EEA member countries to gather data relevant to its overall task
and to support its reporting and assessment activities;
— the Agency works with EEA member
countries, EU Institutions, International Organisations and others
to avoid duplication and to exploit/add value to existing data
sets through analysis and integrated environmental assessment;
— the main objective of the Agency's
second five year programme (1999-2003) is to further develop environmental
information, focusing on supporting progress towards sustainable
development. The interactions between the environmental, economic,
social and institutional dimensions lie at the core of the objectives
of stainable development;
— the Agency work programme therefore
gives priority to improving the environmental information base
required at the European level using EIONET
— the EEA's objectives of harmonising
environmental data and reporting through EIONOET, extends from
the EU15 and EFTA countries to the 13 Phare countries and to a
lesser degree at present to other countries of the European continent
(eg Newly Independent States (NIS) of the former Soviet Union);
— priority is also given to working
with Eurostat to make best use of the environmental social and
economic statistics collected through the European statistical
system, in order to support integrated environmental assessment
and the analysis of progress toward sustainable development and
integration of environmental considerations into other policy
areas.
JOINT ACTIVITIES
7. The areas of joint activity between EEA
and Eurostat cover horizontal, topic specific and indicator activities.
These are shown in Annex 1.
8. At the operational level, annual work
programmes for these areas shall be developed jointly, taking
into consideration the existing competences and available budgets
of both parties. In particular, it will be necessary to identify
for each activity whether EEA or Eurostat should take the lead,
and who does what on each aspect of the process from identifying
user needs to reporting. These work programmes should also include
timetables for completing different tasks and details of expected
outputs.
9. For the purposes of paragraph 8, the
appropriate Eurostat and EEA staff for each activity shall meet,
at least once a year and in good time, before the overall work
programmes of either body are submitted to the Management Board
of the EEA or to the Statistical Programme Committee of Eurostat.
10. Guidance on the main aspects to be addressed
for each activity is given in Annex 1[4].
This list should not be considered as exhaustive and other aspects
may be added as the need arises. All aspects of the list should
not be considered as applicable for all areas of joint activity.
11. Other areas of joint activity may be
identified and designated as the respective work programmes of
both organisations are developed and implemented. This does not
preclude co-operation in other areas which are in accordance with
the overall principles and objectives of this agreement.
DATA EXCHANGE
AND CONFIDENTIALITY
12. Eurostat is legally bound by Regulation
1588/90 on Statistical Confidentiality which restricts the dissemination
of certain data to Third Parties. In the context of the Regulation
the EEA is a Third Party. Moreover, some GISCO datasets are governed
by copyright and licensing rules.
13. Subjects to paragraph 12, Eurostat undertakes
to provide the EEA with direct on-line access to the relevant
statistics in the NewCronos database. Eurostat's rules governing
access to and dissemination of data in NewCronos are given in
Annex 2[5].
The EEA undertakes to abide by these rules. The EEA and Eurostat,
[in line with the final paragraph of Annex 2], will work on specific
agreements for making available a limited selection of data from
NewCronos through the EEA Data Warehouse.
14. EEA undertakes to provide Eurostat with
access to its databases, including the full CORINAIR dataset.
In general, the EEA's databases will be made publicly available
via the European Environmental Reference Centre. More detailed
datasets held by the EEA, but not available via the Reference
Centre, will be made available to Eurostat on request. Exceptions
are where the data have use constraints imposed by the data owner.
In these cases it will be for the EEA and/or Eurostat to contact
the data owner to obtain the required permission.
15. As far as GISCO data is concerned, and
subject to paragraph 12, Eurostat undertakes to supply to EEA
the datasets listed in Annex 3[6],
subject to the conditions laid out in the Annex. The EEA will
provide in return geographical data sets collected via their network
partners on themes for which the EEA is responsible, in order
to feed the GISCO reference data base (see annex 3).
16. After consultation with Eurostat, access
to NewCronos data and to the GISCO datasets listed in Annex 3
may also be granted to third parties, such as ETCs who, under
a standard agreement of the European Communities between the third
party and the EEA have undertaken to collect and analyse environmentally
relevant data and to provide study reports to the EEA in the fulfilment
of its work programme. Access shall be granted to such third parties
only for the purposes of fulfilment of these contractual obligations
and subject to the conditions outlined in Annex 2 and 3.
17. The EEA will ensure that third parties
who are granted access to NewCronos or GISCO give their written
agreement to the conditions outlined in Annex 2 and 3. A copy
of this written agreement shall be sent to Eurostat.
18. The EEA will make every effort to ensure
that geographical data collected via the networks of the EEA is
compatible with GISCO standards and that this data is made available
for integration into the GISCO reference data base. The procedure
for doing this will be agreed through direct contact between the
GISCO team and the EEA, and formalised in an exchange of letters.
19. Failure by either party to comply with
these rules may result in the withdrawal of access to the datasets.
WORKING RELATIONSHIPS
AND PROCEDURES
20. The working links between the EEA and
Eurostat at operational level will be handled by regular contacts
between a designated member from each organisation. There will
also be regular contacts between other Eurostat and EEA staff,
appropriate to, and as required by specific activities. These
regular working contacts shall be complemented by co-ordination
review meetings between the Executive Director of the EEA and
the Director of Eurostat Directorate F (or their representatives),
at a frequency to be decided by them.
21. Co-operative work agreed to be performed
by the EEA and Eurostat shall be conducted in close co-operation
with the relevant partners, in particular: the Commission services,
the EEA member countries, the European Topic Centres (those institutes
affiliated with the EEA and dealing with specific environmental
sectors or themes), OECD and the relevant UN organisations including
UNECE, UNEP and UNSO.
22. EEA shall inform Eurostat of its work
programmes, National Focal Points (NFPs), designation of Topic
Centres and of the tasks undertaken by the Topic Centres, Eurostat
shall inform the EEA of its work programmes and national statistical
networks and contact points.
23. Eurostat may contact the NFPs directly
only after consultation with the EEA. This does not apply to responses
from Eurostat to a direct inquiry from the NFPs.
24. The EEA and ETCs may contact the national
statistical networks or contact points directly only after consultation
with Eurostat. This does not apply to responses by EEA or ETCs
to direct inquiries from the national statistical networks or
contact points.
25. EEA and its Topic Centres will invite
Eurostat to participate in relevant working meetings organised
by the EEA or by the Topic Centres. The same applies to Eurostat
and its constituent units. Each year, Eurostat and the EEA will
exchange lists of meeting to which each other will be invited.
Normally the party involved in travelling to such meetings will
pay its own expenses.
26. The EEA and Eurostat will work together
annually to develop a strategy for joint publications by both
organisations. This strategy will have at its core a list of joint
publications and a set of procedures for drafting, finalising
and publishing such publications. Lead responsibility for common
publications will be decided each time on a case-by-case basis.
Copyright issues will also be agreed on a case-by-case basis.
SHARING COMPUTER
SOFTWARE TOOLS
27. Subject to following the CIRCA procedures
for development and support actions, the EEA will have the right
to use the CIRC software, for which Eurostat holds the copyright,
within all nodes of EIONET.
28. The EEA will be represented in the CIRCA
User Forum, which discusses improvements in the software. Apart
from logos, names, and other superficial changes necessary to
identify EIONET, EEA will not undertake developments that would
lead to fragmentation of the CIRCA product.
RESOURCES
29. The objectives and principles outlined
above on which EEA-Eurostat co-operation are based imply a free
flow of mutually useful information between the two organisations,
without accompanying additional financial implication.
30. This agreement will come into effect
upon signature, and will be extended automatically every 12 months
unless on of the signatories indicates otherwise in writing.
AMENDMENT AND
TERMINATION
31. This agreement may be amended by mutual
agreement using an exchange of letters. Such amendments will come
into force on the date it is signed by the two parties. Either
party may terminate this MoU by giving six months notice to the
other party.
4 not printed here. Copies available from either Eurostat,
Batiment Jean Monnet, Rue Alcide de Gasperi, L-2920 Luxembourg
or EEA, Konbgens Nytory 6, DK 1050 Copenhagen, Denmark. Back
5
not printed here. Back
6
not printed here. Back
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