Since leaving the EEA and Eionet in 2021, the UK has lost access to important mechanisms for collecting, comparing and interpreting environmental data alongside our European neighbours which helped inform UK and collective efforts to tackle climate and environmental issues. As a result, our ability to assess policy effectiveness has been weakened. Although membership is open to non-EU members, the UK is alone with the Russian Federation and Belarus as the only European nations not part of it.

Participation would help make the most of the UK’s investments in Horizon and Copernicus by creating the vital link between the environmental data these generate and UK policy and decision making.  As one of the EEA’s roles is to inform EU policy, membership would provide the UK with one of only a few formal routes by which it could have some influence over policy areas it is considering aligning with.