1. Background

European Topic Centre

The Federal Environmental Agency (UBA Berlin) has been appointed by the European Environment Agency (EEA) as the lead organisation of the Topic Centre on Air Emissions (ETC/AE). The ETC/AE consists of a consortium of several European organisations. A Management Committee has been established which is chaired by Dr Dietmar Koch (UBA Berlin) and furthermore consists of Dr Simon Eggleston (AEA Technology) and Dr Tinus Pulles (TNO). The Management Committee manages the ETC and also provides scientific service and technical assistance to the ETC and the Agency.

Organisations represented in the Topic Centre are:

• ENERO (European Network of Environmental Research Organisations) :

• AEA Technology (Culham, UK)

• ENEA (Roma, Italy)

• RISØ (Roskilde, Denmark)

• TNO (Apeldoorn, The Netherlands)

• UBA Vienna (Austria)

• CITEPA (Paris, France)

• POSEIDON (Thessaloniki, Greece)

National Reference Centres for Air Emissions

There are a number of organisations throughout Europe who also contribute to the EEA’s work programme, the National Reference Centres. These are appointed and funded by the participating countries and are in charge of national co-operation with EEA and ETC to cover various topics, of which one is Air Emission Inventories. The NRCs are regular collectors and suppliers of environmental data and/or possess relevant knowledge regarding environmental science, monitoring and modelling.

The NRCs were appointed by the EEA countries in 1994/1995. In 1996 NRCs were also appointed by the PHARE countries, although this process is not completely finalised yet. Furthermore the ETC co-operates with several other countries, as indicated below.