Ecologic provided expert review in support of the project "Das größere Europa" organised by the Bertelsmann Stiftung. The review is entitled: "Differentiated integration in the European environmental and energy policy".

By way of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and following the enlargement process of 2004, the EU aims to redefine its geopolitical interests and relationship with its new neighbours. These neighbours will be given the opportunity to co-operate and build privileged relationships just beneath the threshold of the EU membership status. By way of this project Ecologic, IEEP and SEI-Tallinn assist in implementing selected issues of the ENP Action Plans and the EU-Russia CES roadmap.

In the cases of climate change, overfishing of oceans, biodiversity loss, and land erosion and desertification, inadequate - or the complete lack of - environmental protection policies impose significant costs on the affected parties. In this scoping study the costs of policy inaction related to different environmental issues are explored. The emphasis is on methodological considerations such as the accrual and valuation of such costs and the use of the results to support policy making.

This project aims to identify options for applying the Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) in EU environmental policy. In recent years the OMC has emerged as an increasingly important instrument of EU governance. Rather than relying on legally binding rules, the OMC works through the diffusion and evaluation of information.

The compliance cost that environmental regulation imposes on businesses plays a central role in the debate on economic competitiveness and environmental sustainability. However, on closer inspection these costs often turn out to be lower than originally anticipated. As part of a a European consortium, Ecologic reviewed ex-post analyses of the costs imposed on business because of European environmental legislation, and compared these to ex-ante estimates. The project reports conclude that some ex-ante overestimation is inevitable, and that the new EU regulatory flexibility could make accurate predictions even more difficult. But it nevertheless proposes a series of ways in which accuracy could be improved.

The EFIEA network aims to improve the practice of Integrated Environmental Assessment in Europe, and to build bridges between science and policy. It involves institutions, individual researchers and policymakers representing a variety of disciplines and countries. Ecologic staff have contributed to several EFIEA workshops; in addition, Ecologic supports the organisation of the EFIEA final conference in Berlin.

The study analyses and evaluates the enforcement of environmental Community law by German administrative law as well as the national law of the EU Member States. For these purposes, the efficiency of national administrative measures in guaranteeing the protection of the environment as requested by specific European Directives and Regulations is illustrated in theory and practice.

Each spring, the European Council meets in order to discuss Europe's progress towards becoming the most competitive economy in the world. At the same time, progress in the area of sustainable development is reviewed. The Working Group on Sustainable Development of the European Environmental Advisory Councils (EEAC) is preparing recommendations as an input to the spring meetings. Ecologic helped the Working Group in drafting the EEAC recommendations for 2004.

The European Parliament's Environment Committee often needs to rapidly react to Commission proposals, and at the same time often needs a solid basis to develop own initiatives within its field of responsibility. Short written briefing notes help to improve the legislative assistance to its Members and strengthen the Committee’s competence in this respect.

The lecture tour from 31 March to 4 April 2008 was initiated by the World Affairs Council of Rhode Island (WACRI) and involved a number of universities, law firms, local chapters of the WACA, and Eric M. Warburg Chapters of the ACG, as well as representatives from consular offices of EU Member States.