(From left) Jennifer Peers and Joshua Lipton of Abt Associates with Stavroula Pouli of the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy. The Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) of the European Parliament and Council establishes a framework whereby environmental damage would be prevented or remedied at a reasonable cost to society. The framework, which took effect on April 30, 2004, is in large part based on the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) procedures and precedents used in the U.S. since the mid-1980s.
 
Since 2012, Abt Associates has supported the European Commission by developing ELD training materials and by leading training sessions for government representatives and other stakeholders. We created presentations, brochures, and fact sheets to increase the implementation of the ELD by European Union member states.
 
Our training includes:

• An overview and history of the ELD;
• Methods used to determine and quantify environmental injuries including;
• Methods used to calculate damages, including alternative approaches to developing restoration-based measures of compensation; and
• Case-study examples.

We have trained the European Commission and multiple European member states, including Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, England, Greece, Lithuania/Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Spain.