The European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL) is an international non-profit association of the environmental authorities of the European Union Member States, acceding and candidate countries of the EU and EEA countries.
The association is registered in Belgium and both its legal seat and its Secretariat are in Bruxelles, Belgium. Currently IMPEL has 48 members from 33 countries including all EU Member States, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Iceland and Norway.
IMPEL was set up in 1992 as an informal Network of European regulators and authorities concerned with the implementation and enforcement of environmental law. The Network’s objective is to create the necessary impetus in the European Union to make progress on ensuring a more effective application of environmental legislation. The core of the IMPEL activities concerns awareness raising, capacity building, peer review, exchange of information and experiences on implementation, international enforcement collaboration as well as promoting and supporting the practicability and enforceability of European environmental legislation. The Association undertakes its activities primarily within a project structure.
Mission
The mission of IMPEL is to contribute to protecting the environment by promoting the effective implementation and enforcement of EU environmental law. The Association seeks more particularly to:
- promote the exchange of information and experience between environmental authorities in the broadest sense (national, regional or local authorities competent for the implementation and enforcement of EU environmental law, e.g. ministries, regulators, agencies and inspectorates);
- promote the development of national networks of environmental authorities with special concern for the cooperation between these authorities at all government levels;
- promote mutual understanding of the common characteristics and differences of national regulatory systems;
- carry out joint enforcement projects;
- support, encourage and facilitate capacity building and training of inspectors and enforcers;
- identify and develop good and, whenever possible, best practices, produce guidance, tools and common standards and actively contribute to further improvements as regards inspection, permitting, monitoring, reporting and enforcement of EU environmental law;
- develop a greater consistency of approach, as appropriate, in the interpretation, implementation and enforcement of EU environmental law in the countries applying this law;
- provide feedback on better regulation issues with regard to practicability and enforceability and provide advice on the practicability and enforceability of new and existing EU environmental law to the European Commission and other EU Institutions, gathering information on experience of implementing and enforcing this law, from the practitioners point of view;
- explore the use of innovative regulatory and non-regulatory instruments as alternatives for or complementary to existing regulation.
You can find more information at www.impel.eu