EVOLUTIVE TRENDS OF ISO 14001 IN EUROPEAN UNION

Considered to be the most representative and most widely used standard of the ISO14000 family, the standard for environmental management systems, ISO 14001 always arouses a growing interest. Annually, the number of certifications increases in an impressive rate and the main reason is the desire of organizations to increase their environmental performance. This study is an analysis of the number of ISO 14001 certifications in the European Union countries (EU) between 2009-2013, both on a general level and at the level of industrial sector. Moreover, our research has been undertaken in parallel with worldwide existing trends in order to better understand the direction in which EU Member States are moving.We could notice that EU countries fit worldwide existing trends, but we also identified some issues that differ from the existing situation around the world.