on environmental protection expenditure follows the recommendations of the Chapter XXI of the 1993 System of National Accounts. Eurostat, national statistical offices and experts gathered to develop a whole new type of statistics. The result became a manual called European System for the Collection of Economic Information on the Environment (SERIEE). The manual presented a conceptual statistical framework for a monetary description of environmental protection activities and to some extent resource management activities. After the publication of SERIEE European statistical offices started to test and develop this new type of statistics. Much due to the adoption of variables on pollution prevention (integrated) investments, pollution treatment (end-of-pipe) investments and current expenditure on environmental protection in the Structural Business Statistics Regulation 58/97 in 2002 part of the EPEA were developed faster. The evaluation of SERIEE were focused on the EPEA framework and several countries provided pilot studies on the topic. Examples are Belgium, France, and Germany among other countries. At the same time, the System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) were being developed. The manual SEEA 2003 manual adopted the EPEA as part of their work and environmental protection expenditure statistics became recognised world wide. Throughout this time Eurostat and the OECD has collected data in this field in a joint data collection scheme, by gentlemen's agreement. This means that the countries receiving the questionnaire are not obliged to answer under any legal obligation but do so out of voluntary agreement. A simplified EPEA has been the requirement and investments, current expenditure, revenues and subsidies/transfers for environmental protection has been the targeted variables of statistics. These variables are often also considered official statistics. Recent discussions in the statistical community are the proposal to include the EPEA tables in full or in a simplified form in the adopted Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2011 on European environmental economic accounts. Implementation The studies in late 1990s indicated that the EPEA were difficult to compile, i.e. in the sense that numerous types of statistics were required and the gaps of information in the tables provided results that were uncertain at best. Even more recent studies have concluded the same thing. A few countries have found the compilation of the EPEA feasible and can provide results that are viable. For example, Italy and Belgium produce the accounts on a regular basis. The general approach