European environmental economic accounts: “Only by using reliable indicators we can develop targeted policies at European level”

The Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety voted today a legislative report on the European environmental economic accounts, which contributes to further improving policy making at European level.

“With different occasions, The Parliament highlighted the need of supplementing existing indicators with data that incorporate environmental aspects, in order to allow more coherent and comprehensive policy making. I welcome the new accounts that the Commission proposed on environmental protection expenditure, on environmental goods and services sector and physical energy flow accounts, which supplement already existing ones. Only by using reliable indicators we can develop targeted policies at European level”, said the Rapporteur.

In the last years GDP alone was not considered a sufficient indicator for measuring progress and people’s wellbeing in the world. The necessity of following the links between environment and economy and of measuring economy’s impacts on the environment became obvious.

Consequently starting from 2011, Regulation 691/2011 establishes a common framework for the collection, compilation, transmission and evaluation of European environmental economic accounts. The Rapporteur welcomes the European Commission’s proposal to extend the Regulation to three new economic accounts, as they will contribute to further developing more comprehensive indicators for better public debate and policy making.