European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (‘IMPEL’): Set up in 1992. Membership of IMPEL is open to organisations or authorities working in the public sector who implement and enforce environmental legislation. It is not open to individuals. IMPEL has 50 members from 35 countries including all EU Member States, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Iceland, Kosovo, Albania, Switzerland and Norway.

Helps strengthen the implementation of environmental law in Europe, by (including):

• helping countries get to compliance more quickly, for example, by sharing knowledge, skills and good practices, and carrying out peer reviews;
• helping implementing organisations use their limited resources more effectively, for example, by producing technical guidance and promoting the use of risk-based approaches to target effort;
• coordinating action between countries, for example, in the enforcement of regulations to tackle illegal trans-frontier movements of waste;
• facilitating communication between different actors and networks, for example, prosecutors, judges and ombudsmen;
• informing policy with practical experience and expertise.

Organises conferences on implementation and enforcement of EU Environmental Law. On average over 200 experts in permitting, inspection, enforcement and policy and lawmaking from all IMPEL Member countries and the European Commission participate in these conferences.
Runs Projects - eg. ‘Contributing to the elimination of illegal killing of birds: exchange of intelligence between MS’ - Crimes related to the illegal killing of birds (IKB) are, in many cases, a cross border problem. With many agencies involved in enforcement (even within MS,) sharing information and intelligence are crucial for proper enforcement strategies. Previous projects on this topic confirmed there is a need to gather and exchange information and intelligence.
The aim is to create a way (method) to exchange and share information with other EU MS Enforcement teams working in the field of IKB.
Nature protection and the implementation of the Nature Directives a major topic.