New EEA European Topic Centre for Waste
The European Environment Agency (EEA) has launched its ninth European Topic Centre, which will focus on information in the field of waste. The aim of the Topic Centres, of which others include inland waters, nature conservation and air emissions, is to cooperate with the Agency and extend its capacities. This is done through the European Environmental Information and Observation Network (EIONET). In addition the Centres will facilitate the flow of data from national monitoring into information and reporting activities which can be directly used in the development and implementation of Community environment policy. The waste Topic Centre will be coordinated by the Danish Environment Protection Agency in cooperation with the City of Copenhagen. The Centre will be relatively small, with only three to five partners from other EEA member countries. The EEA will fund the Centre for three years, although this period may be extended. Two projects from the current EEA work programme will be taken on by the new Topic Centre. These are: a pilot project for further assessment of inventories and analysis of main flows, and establishing inventories and analysis on waste movements and transfers. In addition, the Centre will also have the tasks of developing methods to compare existing diverse information sources on waste, and developing a database of waste management facilities. More generally, it must also develop the EIONET network and the National Focal Points as suppliers of information on waste for use at Community level.