​On 24 April the ENVE commission held a debate on the Environment Implementation Review in the presence of Commissioner Karmenu Vella.

The EIR looks at addressing Implementation gaps of environment legislation across EU Member States while promoting political dialogue between the Commission and the Member States on the basis of country reports.

The EA Group coordinator, Cllr Andrew Cooper  and CoR rapporteur on EIR, called for climate change and industrial emissions to be covered, thus suggesting to extend the scope of EIR. He also said that the way data are collected varies across the EU, hence a common methodology needs to be established to allow for meaningful comparison.

EA member, Enda Stenson underlined that Implementation happens at local level and LRAs must play a bigger role in the political dialogues. The opinion will be discussed at the next ENVE meeting in July and adopted in the October Plenary Session.

In autumn, the Commission and the CoR will also launch a peer to peer financing tool permitting local authorities across the EU to exchange good practices in the implementation of environmental legislation.

Furthermore, during the meeting the ENVE commission, members adopted the opinions related to the Energy Union package, on governance, energy efficiency and renewable energy.