21/05/2019 (Agence Europe) – The European regulation that will harmonise, improve and simplify all reporting obligations imposed on Member States by EU environmental legislation was adopted on Tuesday 21 May by the EU Council. This regulation was the subject of an interinstitutional agreement last December (see EUROPE 12164/4). In addition to simplification, it will reduce administrative costs, improve the quality of data available for future evaluations and improve transparency by facilitating public access to information collected by national administrations. This future Regulation will cover ten legislative texts: the ‘Sewage Sludge’ (86/278/EEC), ‘Environmental Noise’ (2002/49/EC), ‘INSPIRE’ (2007/2/EC) and ‘Birds’ (2009/147/EC) directives; Regulation 166/2006, the ‘protection of animals used for scientific purposes’ Directive (2010/63/EU), the ‘Timber’ Regulation (995/2010), the FLEGT Regulation (2173/2005), the CITES Regulation (338/97) and the ‘Environmental Liability’ Directive (2004/35/EC). (AN)