Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law ( IMPEL)

In 1992, within the DG XI, a European network was created, IMPEL, to perform and apply community environmental regulations. The network provides a mechanism for exchanging information and experience between the different environment authorities of the European Union, and also between representatives of the European Commission and authorities related to the regulation of industrial installations in member states.

The main objective is to increase professional standards between inspectors and to uniformly intensify the control in order to achieve a reduction in the pollution levels in the European Union.

Up to now, the structure of the network has been formed by four work groups and one "ad-hoc" group, with representatives from the different member states. The subjects developed in the work groups are the following:

• Work Group I - Technical aspects of the authorisation process
• Work Group II - Legal and procedural aspects of the authorisation process
• Work Group III - Monitoring legislative compliance and inspection
• Work Group IV - Regulation application process
• Ad-hoc Group (TFS) - Transfrontier waste shipment

The IMPEL is currently being reorganised so that from a fixed structure where two groups are differentiated, legal and technical aspects, the different matters of interest will be developed by short term voluntary work groups.

The Agència de Residus de Catalunya of the Department of the Environment and Housing, in addition to attending meetings of Work Group IV, has actively participated since 1994 in the Ad-hoc Group (TFS) mentioned above.