Overview
Across Europe, there are thousands of public experts working who possess a wealth of knowledge and invaluable know-how to ensure sound implementation of environmental policy. TAIEX-EIR PEER 2 PEER helps to share good practices between EU Member States. It stems form 30-year success of the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange (TAIEX) instrument and applies this experience to the implementation challenges mapped in the EIR country reports. The Envionmental Implementation Review (EIR) mapped the main challenges in the implementation of European Environmental policy and legislation for each EU Member State as well as existing good practices and points of excellence. These cover thematics such as:
- Circular economy
- Waste management, wastewater treatment and reuse
- Nature protection and biodiversity
- Bioeconomy
- Green infrastructure and soil protection
- Improvement of air quality
- Water quality and management
- Green and sustainable public procurement, as well as eco-design and eco-labelling
- Sustainable urban development and sustainable finance.
Implementation gaps, as well as access to justice, environmental liability, compliance assurance and other aspects of environmental governance are also tackled through TAIEX EIR.
Find out more about the EIR Peer to Peer Tool in this leaflet (in English and French).
Applications can be submitted using the Online application. Ensure to select TAIEX EIR PEER 2 PEER option.
Expert Missions: Public experts from an EU Member State authority go on a mission to another EU Member States’ public authority that have requested peer advice and exchange experience on a specific topic. Expert missions can last between two to five days.
Study Visits: participants from the beneficiary EU Member State’s public administration visit in another EU Member State institutions to learn from peers and exchange good practices. Study visits can last between two to five days.
Workshops: EU Member State experts address a wider audience from one or more EU Member States’ public administrations. Workshops would normally last two days.
Depending on the purpose of the event, the focus can be more on learning from a specific good practice example, a specific experience or knowledge or more on a mutual exchange of experience between environmental authorities on a particular implementation challenge.
TAIEX-EIR PEER 2 PEER finances
- Travel, accommodation and a per diem for experts participating in expert missions or workshops. Additionally a flat daily allowance per working day can be paid to the expert or her/his employer.
- Travel and accommodation for participants in study visits or multi-country workshops; for participants from the hosting country travel and accommodation is only financed when the distance between their residence and the venue of the workshop exceeds a certain minimum.
- Working language is English. Interpretation can be financed if duly justified.
- TAIEX-EIR PEER 2 PEER can cover costs for the venue, catering and the printing of background material for workshops.
The assistance is provided at request of public institutions involved in the implementation of EU environmental policy and law in the EU Member States, such as:
- National, regional and local departments and agencies;
- Coordinating authorities;
- Inspection and audit authorities;
- Permitting authorities;
- Regional or local environmental implementation businesses entrusted with a public task, and with the application supported by an authority or
- Networks of experts involved in environmental implementation and enforcement in cooperation with a Member State environmental authority.
Applications can be submitted using the Online application. Ensure to select TAIEX EIR PEER 2 PEER option.
Applications are easy to prepare. Applicants have to provide short information about the objective of the event, the field of expertise concerned, participants and target group, approximate timing and contact person. Details will be prepared later in close cooperation with the requesting institution.
Please have a look at the short application template.
The request is subject to approval by the European Commission. If eligible and justified, the European Commission will approve your application, look for suitable public experts in other EU Member States, agree on the practical details and organise logistics via an external contractor.
For assistance, please contact ENV-EIR
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (ENV-EIR[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
TAIEX-EIR PEER 2 PEER makes use of the existing extensive TAIEX expert database comprising many public experts who are well experienced in the area of environmental policies.
You can register through the TAIEX Expert Database, using the keyword TAIEX EIR PEER 2 PEER, if you:
- work for a central, regional or local Member State administration in one of the institutions responsible for managing and implementing EU environmental policy and law, at national, regional or local level - this may also be a company established by an authority, mandated to execute public tasks
- and are willing to share your knowledge and experience with peers from other EU Member States and engage in exchange of good practices, and your organisation allows you time for this
After registering, your account will show you all peer learning events where an expert with your profile could make a useful contribution.
Inspiring examples and ideas
To inspire authorities to submit a request for P2P support, the following documents with good practices may be useful:
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Best Practices from the Environmental Implementation Review 2019 across the EU 28 Countries – Report by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency (2019)
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General: Overview of good practices based on the 28 EIR reports (Report by the Irish EPA, August 2017)
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Air: Catalogue of Air Quality Measures with successful and unsuccessful air quality measures
Other instruments
Several other instruments contribute to a better implementation of environmental law
- Commission Action Plan on environmental compliance and governance
- TAIEX REGIO PEER 2 PEER - to share expertise between bodies that manage funding under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund. Projects also covered environmental policy areas.
- The peer-to-peer support process between competent authorities concerning the implementation of the Water Framework Directive and Floods Directive.
- The Technical Support Instrument (TSI) - an EU programme that provides tailor-made support to all EU countries for their institutional, administrative and growth-enhancing reforms. The TSI support covers the entire reform process, from preparing and designing to implementing the reforms.
Cooperation with networks
Networks of environmental authorities and experts provide indispensable contributions to the exchange of knowledge and good practices in implementing environmental policy and legislation. TAIEX-EIR PEER 2 PEER can complement activities of these networks.
European practitioner networks
European environmental inspectors, police officers, prosecutors, judges, auditors and heads of environmental protection agencies have formed separate networks to help them with their work. The networks enable knowledge, expertise and best practices to be shared.
The European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL) is an international non-profit association of the environmental authorities of EU Member States, and acceding and candidate countries of the EU, EEA and EFTA countries. The IMPEL Review Initiative Tool is a voluntary peer review where environmental authorities of IMPEL member countries help each other to improve the implementation of EU environmental law.
Associations of national, regional and local authorities promoting exchange of experience and good practice in environmental implementation are amongst other-
Events
Past and upcoming events are published in the TAIEX library under the keyword EIR.
To see all TAIEX events please click here.
Contact
You can send any comments, questions or relevant information (such as reports, projects, etc.) to ENV-EIRec [dot] europa [dot] eu .