As part of its Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT), the Commission is undertaking a Fitness Check of the Birds and Habitats Directives. This comprehensive, evidence-based assessment of the current regulatory framework determines if it is 'fit for purpose' and delivering against...

This report forms one of the deliverables for the Study on the Economic Benefits of Marine Protected Areas. Through stakeholder consultation, it aims to build on the outputs of the study's extensive literature review to gather further evidence of the economic benefits from MPAs and the...

The European Commission contracted ICF, IEEP and PML to undertake a review of the economic benefits of marine protected areas (MPAs). Task 5 of the study involved the delivery of ten MPA case studies. The case study research was based principally on stakeholder interviews, undertaken during...

This report reviews the existing evidence of economic benefits generated from Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and other Spatial Protection Measures (SPMs) to fisheries, maritime tourism and other blue economy sectors in Europe. It also identifies and critically analyses studies which have...

This report provides an introduction to the different ways in which the blue economy can benefit from marine protected areas (MPAs) and other spatial protection measures (SPMs), providing success stories from across Europe and across multiple sectors. It demonstrates that there is a broad set of...

Since 2012 the European Commission has been actively exploring how to best optimise water reuse in the EU, as a way to help solve the issue of water scarcity and droughts and help deliver the objectives of the Water Framework Directive. In this context it has conducted several rounds of...

The aims of the project are to "provide independent, sound and timely advice on the completion of the impact assessment of policy options to be developed in the context of water reuse". As part of the development of the project, the original tasks and timing of this project were revised to...

In order to support businesses in improving their resource efficiency, Member States use a variety of approaches, ranging from voluntary to regulatory measures. This study assesses the scope of application of ten relevant measures and provides good practice cases of these ten measures across...

This study provides the findings of a Regulatory Fitness (REFIT) evaluation for the Regulation covering the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) (EC/166/2006). The REFIT evaluation was carried out in tandem with the triennial review of the implementation of E-PRTR, which is...

Phasing out subsidies to producers and users of fossil fuels is increasingly seen as an attractive policy option for climate change mitigation and resource efficiency. A major obstacle to this seemingly obvious strategy is the lack of agreement on the definition of a fossil fuel subsidy and on a...