Overview
The Environmental Implementation Review (EIR) has 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. Member States can learn from each other. There is huge potential for Member States' environmental authorities at all levels to improve their environmental performance by sharing knowledge and best practices.
Therefore the European Commission established a new, practical tool that facilitates peer-to-peer learning between environmental authorities. The TAIEX-EIR PEER 2 PEER programme provides tailored support to Member States' authorities implementing environmental policy and legislation. Skills and expertise in Member States administrations are necessary to ensure sound implementation of environmental law and efficient and effective environmental governance. Programmes financed by this Commission programme allow experts involved in environmental implementation from Member States to benefit directly from the experience of peers in other Member States.
Across Europe, there are thousands of public experts working in environmental authorities who possess a wealth of knowledge and invaluable know-how. TAIEX-EIRPEER 2 PEER helps to share good practice in environmental implementation and governance between Member States. It uses the well-established TAIEX instrument that the Commission has been successfully applying for more than 20 years in enlargement and neighbourhood policy and, more recently, with assistance on cohesion policy through the TAIEX REGIO PEER 2 PEER programme.
Find out more about the EIR Peer to Peer Tool in this leaflet (in English and French).
TAIEX-EIR PEER 2 PEER supports:
Expert Missions: experts from an EU Member State environmental authority visit an environmental authority in other Member States that have requested peer advice and exchange experience on a specific topic. Expert missions can last between two to five days.
Study Visits: employees (maximum three) from a requesting environmental authority go on a working visit to other EU Member State institutions to learn from peers and exchange good practices. Study visits can last between two to five days.
Workshops: workshops with environmental authorities from one or several EU Member States (single or multi-country workshops) can be organized in a requesting institution. 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 expert exchanges can address all issues covered by the EIR country reports: for example circular economy and waste management, nature protection, biodiversity, green infrastructure and soil protection, improvement of air quality, water quality and management, sustainable urban development. They can also deal with common root causes of implementation gaps, such as administrative capacity, skills, coordination mechanisms, access to justice, environmental liability, compliance assurance as well as reporting and sharing of environmental information or other aspects of environmental governance.
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.
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. 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 P2P, 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
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Commission Action Plan on environmental compliance and governance
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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.
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The peer-to-peer support process between competent authorities concerning the implementation of the Water Framework Directive and Floods Directive.
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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 .