The European Parliament’s Environment Committee often needs to rapidly react to Commission proposals, and at the same time often needs a solid basis to develop own initiatives within its field of responsibility. Short written briefing notes help to improve the legislative assistance to its Members and strengthen the Committee’s competence in this respect.

The EP can request these Briefings on an ad-hoc basis from the IEEP/Ecologic Institute team and its network partners, including Ecologic Institute's network partner IVM.

Briefings requested in this context may, for instance contain, rapid regulatory impact assessments of policy proposals or examine the state of implementation of existing legislation. Briefings already finalised and published on the European Parliament's website include:

Framework Contract 4:

• May 2010:
  Ecologic Institute Project: CO₂ emissions of new passenger cars
  Ecologic Institute Publication: Study on consumer information on fuel economy and CO₂ emissions of new passenger cars [pdf, 2.0 MB, English]

Framework Contract 3: 2006-2009

• October 2009:
  Update Briefing: Linking the EU's Emissions Trading System to a Future US Emissions Trading Scheme [pdf, 500 KB, English] on the occasion of the ENVI delegation visit to Washington, D.C. 
• June 2009:
  Welcome Package Environment [pdf, 1.2 MB, English]
• March 2009:
  Study: Land Degradation and Desertification [pdf, 900 KB, English]
• January 2009:
  Study: Linking the EU's Emissions Trading System to a Future US Emissions Trading Scheme
• October 2008:
  Note: Environment situation in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) [pdf, 518 KB, English]
• 12 June 2008:
  Workshop: Sustainable Biofuel Production in Tropical and Subtropical Countries [pdf, 1.2 MB, English]
• 3 June 2008:
  Workshop: Effort Sharing under the Climate Package - Assessing the role of the Clean Development Mechanism
  Workshop Proceedings [pdf, 938 KB, English]
  Ecologic Institut Project: Effort Sharing and Clean Development Mechanism in the EU climate package
• 28 May 2008:
  Workshop: Assessing the Commission’s Proposal on Carbon Capture and Storage [pdf, 740 KB, English]
• 15 May 2008:
  Workshop: Future of the EU ETS [pdf, 770 KB, English]
• May 2008:
  Note: Key issues for the upcoming Biodiversity and Biosafety meetings in May 2008 (Bonn, Germany) [pdf, 400 KB, English]
• February 2008:
  Study: Water Scarcity and Droughts [pdf, 1.1 MB, English]
  Study: Forest Fires: causes and contributing factors in Europe [pdf, 1.2 MB, English]
• January 2008:
  Ecologic Institute Publication: Climate change-induced water stress and its impacts on natural and managed ecosystems
  Study: Climate change-induced water stress and its impacts on natural and managed ecosystems [pdf, 1 MB, English]
• October 2007:
  Ecologic Institute Project: Assessment of the 6th Environment Action Programme
  Study: Assessment of the achievements of the 6th Environmental Action Programme [pdf, 960 KB, English]
• July 2007:
  Workshop: Limiting global climate change to 2°C: The way ahead for 2020 and beyond [pdf, 657 KB, English]
• June 2007:
  Workshop: Inclusion of aviation emissions in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) [pdf, 711 KB, English]
• April 2007:
  Study: Simplification of European Water Policies [pdf, 3.4 MB, English]
  Study: Simplifying EU Environmental Policy [pdf, 3.5 MB, English]
• March 2007:
  Ecologic Institute Project: Analysis of the implementation of the End-of-Life Vehicle Directive
  Study: End of Life Vehicles (ELV) Directive: an assessment of the current state of implementation by Member States [pdf, 4.5 MB, English]
• January 2007:
  Brief: The Problem of Biodiversity Loss in the EU: Evaluation of EU efforts towards achieving the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2010 and beyond [pdf, 412 KB, English]
• December 2006:
  Ecologic Institute Project: The revision of the Waste Framework Directive
  Study: The Proposed Directive on Waste: An assessment of the Impact Assessment and the Implications of the Integration of the Hazardous Waste Directive into the existing Waste Framework Directive [pdf, 1.1 MB, English]

Framework Contract 2: 2005-2006

• September 2006:
  Brief: Proposed Air Quality Directive: Assessment of the environmental impact of Parliament's amended Proposal [pdf, 639 KB, English]
• May 2006:
  Study: Marine Thematic Strategy [pdf, 116 KB, English]
• March 2006:
  Briefing Note: Reducing the Impact of Aviation on Climate Change: Economic aspects of inclusion of the aviation sector in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme [pdf, 106 KB, English]
  Ecologic Institute Presentation: Aviation in the EU emission Trading Scheme (EU-ETS)
  Ecologic Institute Project: Inclusion of aviation in EU-emissions trading
  Briefing Note: The Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution [pdf, 98 KB, English]
  Briefing Note: The adequacy of EU action on flood protection, focusing on the European Commission’s recent proposal [pdf, 240 KB, English]
  Ecologic Institute Publication: The adequacy of EU action on flood protection, focusing on the Commission’s recent proposal
• February 2006:
  Briefing Note: Assessment of key issues likely to emerge at the COP-MOP meeting on Biodiversity/Biosafety (March 2006 in Curitiba/Brazil) [pdf, 112 KB, English]
  Briefing Note: Climate change and natural disasters: Assessment of EU measures to tackle forest fires, in particular the contribution made by Forest Focus [pdf, 153 KB, English]
• January 2006:
  Briefing Note: Climate change and natural disasters: Scientific evidence of a possible relation between recent natural disasters and climate change [pdf, 232 KB, English]
• November 2005:
  Brief: Ban on Leaded Batteries: Analysis of an Amendment to Article 4 in the Council Common Position For Adopting A Directive On Batteries And Accumulators And Waste Batteries And Accumulators And Repealing 91157/EEC [pdf, 412 KB, English]

Framework Contract 1: 2003-2004

• October 2004:
  Ecologic Institute Project: Job Creation Potential of Clean Technologies
  Study: Job Creation Potential of Clean Technologies [pdf, 259 KB, English]
• April 2004:
  Brief: Impact Assessment [pdf, 100 KB, English]
• January 2004:
  Brief: The Fourth Air Quality Daughter Directive: Impacts and consequences of mandatory limit values [pdf, 310 KB, English]
  Brief: Prospects for the Implementation of Selected New and Future EU Environmental Legislation in the Acceding Countries [pdf, 228 KB, English]
  Brief: Linking Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) & Joint Implementation (JI) with EU Emission Allowance Trading [pdf, 873 KB, English]
• December 2003:
  Brief: Progress in the Implementation of Five Environmental Directives in the Acceding Countries [pdf, 441 KB, English]
  Brief: The Proposed Directive on the Protection of Groundwater Against Pollution [pdf, 304 KB, English]
• November 2003:
  Brief: Ad hoc Report on Chemicals: Comparative Analysis of REACH and Other International Approaches [pdf, 448 KB, English]
• October 2003:
  Brief: Incineration as recovery and disposal of waste: Analysis and interpretation of the judgements of the European Court of Justice C-458/00 and C-228/00 [pdf, 311 KB, English]
  Brief: Implementation of the IPPC Directive (96/61): Analysis and progress of issues [pdf, 353 KB, English]