European Environmental Bureau

The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) is a network of over 143 environmental citizens' organisations based in more than 30 countries (all European Union Member States plus some accession and neighbouring countries). These organisations range from local and national, to European and international. EEB's aim is to protect and improve Europe's environment and to enable Europe's citizens to play a part in achieving that goal. A key element of this process is promoting the EU's 'Green Leadership'.

European Environmental Bureau
AbbreviationEEB
Formation1974
TypeNGO
PurposeEnvironmental protection
Location
  • 34, Bd. de Waterloo, 1000 Brussels[1][2]
Region served
Europe
Membership
143 organizations
Official language
English
Secretary General
Jeremy Wates (since May 2011)
Main organ
Executive Committee
Websitehttp://www.eeb.org/

The EEB is a democratic federation speaking on behalf of millions of EU citizens, which plays a prominent role in defending and promoting the environmental interests and legislation at the different EU institutions.[3]

Organisation

Before the first environmental Action Plan was adopted by the European Community, environmental NGOs from Europe met in the United Kingdom, together with the European Commission, the UNECE, the UNEP and the IUCN. During the meeting, it was surfaced the project of creating a federation of non-governmental organizations within the European Community,[4] which later become an information clearinghouse for the EC countries.[5]

The EEB office was set up in Brussels in 1974 to provide a focal point for its members to monitor and respond to the EU's emerging environmental policy.[6] EEB has an information service, runs working groups with its members, produces position papers on topics that are, or EEB feels should be, on the EU agenda, and represents its members in discussions with the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council. It closely coordinates EU-oriented activities with members at national level, and also closely follows the EU enlargement process and some pan-European issues such as follow-up to the Aarhus Convention (the UNECE 'Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters').

EEB has consultative status at and relations with: the Council of Europe, the Commission of the European Union, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee of the European Union, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), the United Nation Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD). It has a membership of 143 member organisations in more than 30 countries: non-governmental organizations, dealing with environmental issues and nature protection.

Role in the European Union

EEB has day-to-day working relationships with EU institutions including the European Commission, the European Parliament and Council of Ministers, and has routine contacts with the European Environmental Agency and other EU institutions and bodies, Member States' Permanent Representatives and national ministries. It also has consultative status at the Council of Europe and the United Nations and plays an important role in the environmental Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) community in promoting implementation of the Aarhus Convention both within and outside the EU.

In 1998, the EEB led the issue group on public participation of the pan-European coalition on environmental citizens' organizations, later named as European ECO Forum, which was closely involved in the negotiating phase of the UNECE Aarhus Convention.[7]

At 2013, it was considered as one of the seven core environmental organizations in Europe, together with Friends of the Earth Europe (FFoE), Greenpeace International, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Climate Network Europe (CNE), the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E), and BirdLife International.[8]

EU political institutions had a large role in the formation and maintenance of Brussel-based umbrella- and federation type groups representing the EU civil society, through direct funding relationships (estimated around 80 per cent in 2005) from the Union budget, and by virtue of an early preference of the Commission for engaging only with EU level groups.[9]

A wide member network

Environmental organisations in candidate countries (those applying to join the EU) and, increasingly, in the Western Balkans, regard the EEB as their main partner with a European focus. EEB's experience, relationships and position are of great value to these states in determining their own role in processes related to EU enlargement and the environment. Owing to the EEB's proactive involvement, its members from New Member States and those aspiring to join the EU are already numerous and are increasing.

Member organisations

Campaigns

In November 2004, working with the Ban Mercury Working Group,[10] EEB launched the Zero Mercury campaign,[11] whose ultimate goal is to achieve zero emissions, demand and supply of mercury, from all sources we can control, to reduce global environmental mercury levels to a minimum. An international Zero Mercury Working Group was created to follow up developments at European and global level.

Since the beginning of 2011, EEB has been coordinating the Coolproducts[12] campaign aiming at unleashing the energy savings potential of energy-related products.

References
  1. ec.europa.eu
  2. Ramsay, Anne; Stevenson, Lillian; Woollam, Jackie (2000). Eurojargon: A Dictionary of European Union Acronyms, Abbreviations and Sobriquets (6th ed.). London; Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn. p. 111. ISBN 9781579582746. OCLC 924937895.
  3. Wijen, Frank; B. C. J. Zoeteman; Pieters, Jan (1 January 2005). A Handbook of Globalisation and Environmental Policy: National Government Interventions in a Global Arena. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 395. ISBN 9781781954355. OCLC 371031436. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  4. Kiss, Alexandre; Shelton, Dinah (2 October 1997). Manual of European Environmental Law. New york: Cambridge University Press. p. 90. ISBN 9780521598880. OCLC 35808407. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  5. Trzyna, Thaddeus C.; Didion, Julie (18 October 2013). World Directory of Environmental Organizations (6th ed.). Routledge. p. 30. ISBN 9781134204144. OCLC 868970932. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  6. On its history see: Meyer, Jan-Henrik. 2013. Challenging the Atomic Community. The European Environmental Bureau and the Europeanization of Anti-Nuclear Protest. In Societal Actors in European Integration. Polity-Building and Policy-Making 1958–1992, edited by W. Kaiser and J.-H. Meyer. Basingstoke: Palgrave. 197–220.
  7. Treves, Tullio; Fodella, Alessandro (2005). Civil Society, International Courts and Compliance Bodies. Cambridge University Press. p. 177. ISBN 9789067041867. OCLC 57223380. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  8. Aspinwall, Mark; Greenwood, Justin (13 September 2013). Collective Action in the European Union: Interests and the New Politics of Associability. Routledge. p. 176. ISBN 9781136214028. OCLC 901761459. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  9. Jack Hayward; Rüdiger Wurzel (28 September 2012). European Disunion: Between Sovereignty and Solidarity. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 38–39. ISBN 9781137271358. OCLC 1058809071. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 September 2011. Retrieved 27 July 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. "Zero Mercury Working Group". Zeromercury.org. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  12. "Coolproducts EU". Coolproducts.eu. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
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