The European Union is a continental political and economic bloc that protects the collective interest of its members. The EU has 48 agencies that perform several roles to help the union to achieve its mandates.
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One of the important agencies of the EU is the European Environment Agency (EEA) which collects, processes, and analyzes environmental data at the European level.
The agency does this to provide objective and reliable information for the Member States to take the necessary measures to protect the environment.
European Environmental Agency came into being on October 30, 1993, with its headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital.
Who Are the Members Countries of the European Environment Agency?
First, member states of the European Union are EEA members except for a country which exited the EU. For instance, the United Kingdom which exited the EU (Brexit) on January 31, 2020, ceased to be a member of the European Environment Agency.
Apart from EU members, non-EU members may be accepted into EEA by application and means of agreements between them and the EU.
The agency consists of 32 members which have 27 EU member countries together including Turkey, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland.
There are six countries that are categorized as cooperating countries that are interested in ratifying the environment policies and suggestions of EEA in their country. The six countries are called Western Balkan countries.
Below is a list of EEA member countries
- Belgium
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Bulgaria
- Denmark
- France
- Germany
- Austria
- Finland
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Estonia
- Netherlands
- Czechia
- Ireland
- Italy
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Latvia
- Malta
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Sweden
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Slovakia
- Turkey
- Switzerland
- Romania
- Luxembourg
EEA Cooperating countries
Western Balkan countries that are cooperating with EEA countries are
- Serbia
- Kosovo
- Albania
- Montenegro
- North Macedonia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
Significance of EEA in Environmental Standards
In Europe, particularly among the EEA member countries, environmental standards are no joke. They lay so much emphasis on it.
No wonder the recent report by EEA entitled, “European bathing water quality in 2021” came up with a finding of the European countries that have the most healthy open water for adventurers who might want to try out wild water swimming.
In the EEA report, Austria came first as the best country in that ranking. Despite Austria’s terrain to acid rain and damage to the alpines, the country is among the top European countries that keep to the best environmental standards.