The European Environmental Economic Accounts (EEEAs), a statistical framework of crucial importance for the development and monitoring of an effective European environmental policy, must be improved to enable timely and effective action to be taken on the basis of updated data, according to a report by the Court of Auditors published on 10 October.
EEEAs make it possible to determine the costs of environmental protection and who bears them, but they also play a key role, for example, in evaluating the 7th Environment Action Programme (EAP 2014-2020) or in measuring progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Europe.
Gaps were identified by the auditors who assessed how the European Commission has implemented, managed and used EEEAs and whether it has taken into account data needs in the design and preparation of these accounts. The audit also covered the assessment procedures for EEEA data processes.
To increase the usefulness of EEEAs, they recommend that the Commission improve the strategic framework of this instrument, the relevance of the modules and the timeliness of the data.
"Environmental pressures are increasing and it is essential that policy-makers have at their disposal up-to-date and reliable information to monitor progress towards sustainable development", said João Figueiredo, the Member of the European Court of Auditors responsible for the report.
According to the auditors, the Commission had not compiled a full set of EEEA data needs for environmental policy-making. In addition, while the EEEAs' strategic framework proposes several objectives, there is no detailed action plan with intermediate values and budget forecasts necessary to achieve them.
Deficiencies were identified in the development of the EEEA modules, which reduced their relevance to the policy development process. The auditors point out that it takes about 10 years for the development of these modules to meet short- and medium-term data needs and that the potential of the modules has not been exploited for the follow-up of the 7th EAP and the SDGs.
The Commission should provide the data for the EEEAs within 2 years. However, Member States do not always send the required data in a timely manner.
According to the auditors, the Member States' reports do not necessarily contain sufficient information to allow a proper assessment of the quality and comparability of the data. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)