Information
1. The Commission shall provide information to:
(a)
the public on the objectives and principal components of EMAS;
(b)
organisations on the content of this Regulation.
2. The Commission shall maintain and make publicly available:
(a)
a register of environmental verifiers and registered organisations;
(b)
a database of environmental statements in electronic format;
(c)
a database of best practices on EMAS, including, inter alia, effective tools for EMAS promotion and examples of technical support to organisations;
(d)
a list of Community resources for the funding of EMAS implementation and related projects and activities.
Collaboration and coordination
1. The Commission shall promote, as appropriate, collaboration between Member States in order, in particular, to achieve a uniform and consistent application of the rules throughout the Community relating to the following:
(a)
registration of organisations;
(b)
environmental verifiers;
(c)
the information and assistance referred to in Article 32.
2. Without prejudice to Community legislation on public procurement, the Commission and other Community institutions and bodies shall, where appropriate, refer to EMAS or other environmental management systems recognised in accordance with Article 45, or equivalent, as contract performance conditions for works and service contracts.
Integration of EMAS into other policies and instruments in the Community
The Commission shall consider how registration under EMAS in accordance with this Regulation can be:
1.
taken into account in the development of new legislation and revision of existing legislation, in particular in the form of regulatory relief and better regulation as described in Article 38(2);
2.
used as a tool in the context of application and enforcement of legislation.
Relationship with other environmental management systems
1. Member States may submit to the Commission a written request for recognition of existing environmental management systems, or parts thereof, that are certified in accordance with appropriate certification procedures recognised at national or regional level as complying with corresponding requirements of this Regulation.
2. Member States shall specify in their request the relevant parts of the environmental management systems and the corresponding requirements of this Regulation.
3. Member States shall provide evidence of the equivalence with this Regulation of all relevant parts of the environmental management system concerned.
4. The Commission shall, after examination of the request referred to in paragraph 1, and acting in accordance with the advisory procedure referred to in Article 49(2), recognise the relevant parts of the environmental management systems and recognise the accreditation or licensing requirements for the certification bodies if it is of the opinion that a Member State has:
(a)
specified sufficiently clearly in the request the relevant parts of the environmental management systems and the corresponding requirements of this Regulation;
(b)
provided sufficient evidence of the equivalence with this Regulation of all relevant parts of the environmental management system at stake.
5. The Commission shall publish the references of the recognised environmental management systems, including the relevant sections of EMAS referred to in Annex I to which those references apply, and the recognised accreditation or licensing requirements in the Official Journal of the European Union .
Development of reference documents and guides
1. The Commission shall, in consultation with Member States and other stakeholders, develop sectoral reference documents that shall include:
(a)
best environmental management practice;
(b)
environmental performance indicators for specific sectors;
(c)
where appropriate, benchmarks of excellence and rating systems identifying environmental performance levels.
The Commission may also develop reference documents for cross-sectoral use.
2. The Commission shall take into account existing reference documents and environmental performance indicators developed in accordance with other environmental policies and instruments in the Community or international standards.
3. The Commission shall establish, by the end of 2010, a working plan setting out an indicative list of sectors, which will be considered priorities for the adoption of sectoral and cross-sectoral reference documents.
The working plan shall be made publicly available and regularly updated.
4. The Commission shall, in cooperation with the Forum of Competent Bodies, develop a guide on registration of organisations outside the Community.
5. The Commission shall publish a user's guide setting out the steps needed to participate in EMAS.
That guide shall be available in all official languages of the institutions of the European Union and online.
6. Documents developed in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 4 shall be submitted for adoption. Those measures, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, by supplementing it, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 49(3).
Reporting
Every five years, the Commission shall submit to the European Parliament and to the Council a report containing information on the actions and measures taken under this Chapter and information received from the Member States pursuant to Article 41.
The report shall include an assessment of the impact of the scheme on the environment and the trend in terms of number of participants.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
