Environmental Institute, s.r.o. (EI) is an environmental management, research and consulting company, established in 1992, having its headquarters in Kos, Slovak Republic. EI experts participate in projects funded by national governments and/or institutions of the European Union, UNDP/GEF, World Bank, international river basin authorities, NATO and industries.
Their specialisations/expertise relate to integrated river basin management, drafting of river basin management plans and implementation of related environmental policies, assessment of vulnerability of environmental resources and ecosystem-based adaptation measures in view of climate change, environmental monitoring and assessment, analytical chemistry, hydrobiology, aquatic ecology, data management and environmental technologies. Current research activities focus primarily on risk assessment of emerging substances in environment in support of the WFD.
Since 2001, EI has been involved in the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) in Slovakia and supports WFD-related activities of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) within the Danube river basin (19 European states including new EU Member States, PHARE, TACIS and CARDS/OBNOVA countries).
EI has a proven track record in the development of River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) for 13 European river basins, two wetlands and the Black Sea coastal area. Activities are focused mainly on the overall elaboration of RBMPs, their evaluation, national or transboundary programmes for monitoring and evaluating pollution of river basins, groundwater, drinking water and soil, development and implementation of clean-up/waste management technologies in the agricultural sector, turn-key establishment of environmental laboratories, implementation of analytical quality control schemes, design of environmental information and data management systems, capacity building and organisation of training courses/workshops/seminars.
EI has its own well-equipped laboratory, accredited according to ISO 17025 for a wide range of parameters. EI has participated in numerous EU-funded projects incl. ANALEACH (INCO-COPERNICUS), AWACSS, TRAP-NAS, WARP, WEKNOW, VIRM (FP5), AQUATERRA, EAQC-WISE, SOCOPSE, NORMAN (FP6), AQUAREHAB, EDA-EMERGE, SOLUTIONS (FP7) and ANSWER (H2020). Current research activities deal primarily with the EU WFD priority pollutants, emerging substances and screening/identification of unknown organic pollutants in environmental samples
In 2003, EI was appointed as one of the European Centres of Excellence in the drinking water sector and; since 2006 provides as a consortium member technical assistance to the EC for the implementation of WFD in 27 EU Member States. The support has been extended to the European Water Industry Directives (DWD, BWD and UWWTD) and other freshwater policies (incl. Floods Directive) since 2012. EI is a founding member of the NORMAN Association dealing with emerging substances at the EU-scale in support of DG ENV of the EC, responsible for the design, maintenance and upgrade of the pan-European web-based databases of emerging substances.