The European Environment Agency accepted the membership of six EU candidate member countries. The Environment Agency is the first European institution to integrate candidate member countries. The new members are Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Slovenia, Malta and Slovakia.

By this decision, the Environment Agency enlarges its operational area by 50 per cent and increases the number of inhabitants by 45 per cent.
Director-General Domingo Jimenez-Beltran called the accesion of these countries a major step in `Europe`s environmental unification`. The aim now is to optimally protect their natural resources and to make sure that these countries can develop without burdening the environment, as is the case in Western Europe, according to Jimenez-Beltran. Priority will be given to water supplies, cross-border air pollution, forests and the protection of biodiversity. Henceforth, the EU Environment Agency covers the entire river basin of the Danube, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.