Project Description
The IMPEL Review Initiative is a long running project designed to support host organisations implement EU environmental legislation, effective tools and approaches. It is a capacity-building programme where five experts from donor organisations, a team leader and rapporteur review a host organisation. It is not an audit.
The subject matter of the review is selected by the host organisation and could be policy, permitting or inspection driven depending on the needs of the host. On themes such as industry, waste, nature or water. It can involve single or multiple organisations within the regulatory chain such as national-regional-local or actors within the compliance chain. It can focus on any aspect of the environmental acquis.
The process consists of a pre-meet between the team leader, rapporteur and host (to discuss subject area, plan for the review, logistics etc) and the review itself. The review usually consists of three full days presentation and discussion with a presentation of high-level findings to the senior management of the host organisation (& often partner agencies, Ministries etc) on the fourth day.
The reviews are carried out based on a template questionnaire. The questionnaire changes (notably three already in the last ten years) when required to build on new concepts or to simplify the process.
All IRI stuides since 2002 are available under project outputs.
If you are interested in hosting an IRI, IRI information package will provide you with some key information.
Next Cycle (2025-2027)
To ensure the viability of the IRI for the future, the project team will organize a training for team leaders, rapporteurs and team members. In a yearly 2-day online training, IMPEL members will be invited to join the training and educated them on how an IRI is done and what is expected of every participant. It is expected that this will guarantee that there will be sufficient IMPEL-colleagues participating in IRI’s to keep the IRI program running for many years.
Project Outputs
IRI Open Workshop/ 2025
This report summarizes an open workshop organized by IMPEL Impel Review Initiative (IRI) Team. The workshop, held in Prague on December 11, 2024, aimed to inform IMPEL members about the IRI and encourage their participation. Presentations covered the basics of an IRI, shared experiences from recent IRIs in Ireland, Iceland, and Ukraine, and facilitated discussions on the roles within an IRI. Participants identified benefits like learning and improvement, as well as barriers such as lack of senior management support and time commitment. The workshop concluded with a call for members to actively join future IRI teams, highlighting the value of these informal reviews for enhancing environmental law implementation and enforcement across Europe.
This report summarizes the first Ukraine IMPEL Review Initiative (IRI), which was held in The Hague due to the war and focused on the transformation and reform of Ukraine's State Environmental Inspectorate (SEI) and its inspection processes in the context of Ukraine's EU membership aspirations. The IRI identified both good practices within the SEI, such as the implementation of public inspectors and the EcoThreat platform, and several opportunities for development across various areas, including risk assessment, IT infrastructure, and alignment with the EU Environmental Acquis. The report concludes by offering recommendations aimed at supporting the SEI's ambitious reform efforts to enhance its effectiveness in environmental control and enforcement