On Wednesday 7 November in Brussels, the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Governments of the Member States (COREPER) adopted the Council's position on the Regulation aimed at harmonising and simplifying all reporting obligations imposed on Member States by EU environmental legislation.
The European Parliament had just made a decision on this text, which will amend six directives and four regulations (see EUROPE 12126). The path is therefore open for interinstitutional negotiations on this Regulation, which will simplify these reporting obligations and reduce administrative costs, improve the data available for future evaluations and increase transparency. The first trilogue negotiation is scheduled for 15 November.
“We all agree on simplifying the legislation. Not only do we want to improve the legislation, but we also want to make the task easier for our national administrations who have to send data to Brussels”, commented the Austrian federal minister of sustainability and tourism, Elisabeth Köstinger, who chairs the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.
In order to further reduce the administrative burden, the Council has specified certain reporting deadlines and intervals, which must be adhered to, as well as the content of the information that Member States are required to collect and submit to the Commission. It has also removed the proposed amendments to the Environmental Liability Directive, fearing a bureaucratic burden and due to a lack of an impact assessment. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)