Article 2

to establish, in cooperation with the Member States, and coordinate the Network referred to in Article 4; in this context, the Agency shall be responsible for the collection, processing and analysis of data, in particular in the fields referred to in Article 3;

to provide the Community and the Member States with the objective information necessary for framing and implementing sound and effective environmental policies; to that end, in particular to provide the Commission with the information that it needs to be able to carry out successfully its tasks of identifying, preparing and evaluating measures and legislation in the field of the environment;

to assist the monitoring of environmental measures through appropriate support for reporting requirements (including through involvement in the development of questionnaires, the processing of reports from Member States and the distribution of results), in accordance with its multiannual work programme and with the aim of coordinating reporting;

to advise individual Member States, upon their request and where this is consistent with the Agency’s annual work programme, on the development, establishment and expansion of their systems for the monitoring of environmental measures, provided such activities do not endanger the fulfilment of the other tasks established by this Article; such advice may also include peer reviews by experts at the specific request of Member States;

to record, collate and assess data on the state of the environment, to draw up expert reports on the quality, sensitivity and pressures on the environment within the territory of the Community, to provide uniform assessment criteria for environmental data to be applied in all Member States, to develop further and maintain a reference centre of information on the environment; the Commission shall use this information in its task of ensuring the implementation of Community legislation on the environment;

to help ensure that environmental data at European level are comparable and, if necessary, to encourage by appropriate means improved harmonisation of methods of measurement;

to promote the incorporation of European environmental information into international environment monitoring programmes such as those established by the United Nations and its specialised agencies;

to publish a report on the state of, trends in and prospects for the environment every five years, supplemented by indicator reports focusing upon specific issues;

to stimulate the development and application of environmental forecasting techniques so that adequate preventive measures can be taken in good time;

to stimulate the development of methods of assessing the cost of damage to the environment and the costs of environmental preventive, protection and restoration policies;

to stimulate the exchange of information on the best technologies available for preventing or reducing damage to the environment;

to cooperate with the bodies and programmes referred to in Article 15;

to ensure the broad dissemination of reliable and comparable environmental information, in particular on the state of the environment, to the general public and, to this end, to promote the use of new telematics technology for this purpose;

to support the Commission in the process of exchange of information on the development of environmental assessment methodologies and best practice;

to assist the Commission in the diffusion of information on the results of relevant environmental research and in a form which can best assist policy development;

to develop assessment methodologies relating to chemicals in the fields falling within its mandate.