Project helps Eastern neighbours step up cooperation with European Environment Agency

Steps are being taken across the Eastern Neighbourhood to step up cooperation with the European Environment Agency (EEA), following discussions initiated at national workshops by the EU-funded ENPI Shared Environment Information System project (ENPI-SEIS).

The Republic of Armenia has become the first country in the Eastern Neighbourhood to officially appoint a “data reporter” for the EEA, an essential step to enable data sharing between Armenia and the EEA, following a national workshop of the ENPI-SEIS project held in Yerevan at the end of January.

In Georgia, Environment Minister Khatuna Gogoladze signed a letter of intent reaffirming his country’s commitment to share environmental information as part of a move to formalise cooperation with the EEA, following a similar workshop in December. The minister also signed a decree for the establishment of an “Environmental Information and Education Centre”, a key development to enable public access to and sharing of environmental information.

And in Ukraine a national high-level, inter-agency SEIS coordinating body will be set up following the signature of a decree by Oleg Proskuriakov, the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, following discussions at the national ENPI-SEIS workshop held in November. The new coordinating body will convene its first meeting in the coming weeks.

The ENPI-SEIS project aims to promote the protection of the environment in the countries of the Neighbourhood (east and south), by extending the principles of the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) to the region, and developing the capacities of the relevant authorities responsible for environmental data management and reporting. The SEIS is an EU initiative to modernise and simplify the collection, exchange and use of the data and information required for designing and implementing environmental policy.