Six countries, mostly former communist, eastern European states, joined the European Union's environment agency today - the first time an EU body has taken on candidates countries as full members.
The first to join the Copenhagen-based European Environment Agency (EEA) are Bulgaria, Latvia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Malta and Cyprus, the agency said in a statement. The other seven candidate countries are expected to join in the coming months.
According to rules adopted earlier this year, candidate countries may join the EEA after ratifying the agency's membership agreements.
The agency, which collects and publishes data about the state of Europe's environment, has said in the past that eastern Europe has a wealth of natural habitats which could be under threat from future economic growth.
"As these nations move into the European mainstream, the great challenge is to ensure the continued protection and enhancement of their rich natural heritage and to help them avoid certain insensitive types of development," EEA Executive Director Domingo Jimenez-Beltran said.
"Enlargement will put environmentally sensitive areas such as the Danube valley, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean higher up on the EEA's agenda than in the past," the agency said.