Brussels, 08/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - An agreement on better monitoring and reporting of environmental data should be a first step towards measuring the EU economy on a wider basis than GDP, the European Parliament (EP) has said twice, firstly with its approval in Strasbourg on Tuesday 7 June of a draft regulation on European environmental economic accounts and then, on Wednesday 8 June, in adopting a resolution GDP and beyond - Measuring progress in a changing world.
The EP approved the informal compromise negotiated with the Council on the draft regulation on environmental economic accounts by the comfortable majority of 616 votes to 26, with 24 abstentions. This draft text aims to make collate and compare data, already gathered voluntarily by most member states. Under the terms of the compromise, member states' reporting of environmental economic accounts to Eurostat (the EU statistical office) will, from 2012, cover air emissions, material flows and environmental taxes that are levied. Water and forest accounts could be added at a later date, after the assessment which the Commission will carry out at the end of 2013. “Environmental accounts are a missing piece of the puzzle in terms of better understanding economic activities. I am pleased that the EU is taking a step towards properly accounting for its natural capital. This is an important contribution to a new welfare index, comprising economic, environmental and social progress in a society”, said rapporteur Jo Leinen (S&D, Germany), who chairs the environment committee. The Council still has to give its formal approval.
The resolution passed in response to the Commission communication “Beyond GDP” (see EUROPE 10364) supports the Commission's groundwork towards supplementing this economic measure with social and environmental indicators and calls for concrete and consistent proposals for indicators that can be monitored by Eurostat. Anna Rosbach (ECR, Denmark), who drafted the resolution, hopes for “new indicators in the very short-term” as the “EU is coming to this a bit late”. (A.N./transl.rt)