International Involvement
The Environment Agency Austria provides advice on administrative capacity building and national environmental legislation to institutions of the European Union, new and upcoming EU Member States, and the EU Neighbourhood Policy partner countries in the East and Mediterranean region.
Since 1998 the Environment Agency Austria has participated in more than 120 country partnerships, so-called Twinning projects, in more than 27 countries. We provide assistance to authorities in administrative capacity building and in the implementation of EU law. Our geographic reach extends to EU Member States, the West Balkans, Georgia, Turkey, the Middle East and the Maghreb countries. The projects are funded by the EU.
The Environment Agency Austria is a member of more than 200 national, European and international partner networks, bodies and working groups. The Environment Agency Austria collaborates with international organisations such as UNEP and the OECD.
Cooperation in Europe
European Environment Agency and Eionet
The mission of the European Environment Agency (EEA) is to provide the EU and its Member States with objective, reliable and comparable information on the state of environment in Europe. This information shall enable them to take the necessary measures to protect the environment, assess the effects of these measures and ensure that the public is informed about the state of environment.
With the help of its European Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet) the EEA is able to gather environmental and climate data reported by its member countries and draw conclusions at a European level. Eionet is the partnership network of the European Environment Agency and its 32 member and six cooperating countries, which connects more than 2 000 experts in about 400 national institutions from all around Europe.
The EEA is supported by the European Topic Centres. Each of these Centres is a consortium formed by organisations in the field of environmental research and information, which supports the EEA in collecting and assessing environmental data in a specific field at the European level. The ETCs also actively contribute to the drafting of EEA reports.
Europäische Umweltagentur - EEA
Environment Agency Austria – Partner of the EEA
Umweltbundesamt (Environment Agency Austria) is one of the most active national partner institutions of the EEA: as National Focal Point (NFP) it coordinates Austria’s national environment information and observation network for the collecting of environmental data to be reported to the EEA and coordinates Austria’s contributions to consultations and surveys.
Experts from the Environment Agency Austria participate in the majority of the 38 Eionet Groups on different environmental topics. They cooperate with the EEA and the ETCs in capturing and assessing the state of the environment and of the climate in Europe.
Furthermore, the Environment Agency Austria forms part of five of the seven European Topic Centres (ETCs):
ETC on Biodiversity and Ecosystems (ETC BE) (Partner)
ETC on Climate Change Adaptation and LULUCF (ETC CA) (Partner)
ETC on Climate Change Mitigation (ETC CM) (Partner)
ETC on Data Integration and Digitalisation (ETC DI) (Lead)
ETC on Sustainability Transitions (ETC ST) (Partner)
Tasks of the Environment Agency Austria
The Environment Agency Austria as NFP is responsible for the national contributions to the EEA’s work program and for the development of the national environment information and observation network.
This consists of NRCs for several environmental areas, in Austria mostly departments of the Environment Agency Austria. They work together either directly or through the NFP with the respective ETCs.
EIONET - Environmental information and observation
The reports of the EEA are based on the information received from the European Environmental Information and Observation Network EIONET. In EIONET over 600 environmental agencies and authorities, public and private research institutions across Europe are linked.
EEA Members
The 32 member countries currently include the 27 EU Member States in addition to Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. The six West Balkan countries are cooperating countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia as well as Kosovo.