What is EMAS?

The EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is a management tool for companies and other organisations to evaluate, report and improve their environmental performance. The scheme has been available for participation by companies since 1995 and was originally restricted to companies in industrial sectors.

Since 2001 EMAS has been open to all economic sectors including public and private services.

In July 2008 the European Commission proposed to revise EMAS to increase the participation of companies and reduce the administrative burden and costs, particularly for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

On April 2, 2009, the Council and the European Parliament reached agreement on a text for the revised EMAS Regulation. Formal adoption of the regulation, its publication in the Official Journal and entry into force is expected to happen at the end of 2009.

• Agreed text for the revised EMAS Regulation
• The proposal to revise EMAS
• Impact Assessment for a regulation revising the European Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)
• Questions and answers on the proposal to revise EMAS
• Presentation on the EMAS revision

Focus Points

• EMAS Regulation
• Register how to register ?
• SME toolkit
• Statistics learn more