The UN Environment/Mediterranean Action Plan and European Environmental Agency (EEA) held a joint seminar on regional assessments in Copenhagen, on 26-28 February 2018. This seminar was organized with the support of the EU ENI SEISII South Project and featured participants from both organization, including Gaetano Leone, Coordinator of UN Environment/MAP and Hans Bruyninckx, Executive Director of EEA.
The joint seminar on regional assessments was part of the planned activities for 2018 in the framework of the SEIS Support Mechanism – South project, contributing to the common knowledge base and supporting the alignment of upcoming regional assessments in the coming period.
The three-day seminar gathered 15 senior management and staff from the UN Environment / MAP Coordinating Unit and its Components dealing with assessment, and EEA senior management and staff involved in the Mediterranean activities, as well as in the reporting and assessment process. The event was an excellent opportunity for exchanging information, sharing plans on the upcoming assessments and identifying synergies and prospects for further cooperation.
UN Environment/MAP and EEA are well-established partners in the Mediterranean region, who support sharing of environmental information across the region at national level and expanding the knowledge base, while contributing to important international processes such as European Neighbourhood Policy, Ocean Governance, regional seas cooperation and SDGs.
The participants exchanged information about the regional assessments that are being planned, among which: The UN Environment/MAP State of Environment and Development Report (SOED 2019), the Med 2050, the 2nd Horizon 2020 regional assessment (2019), EEA’s 5-year European Environment – State and Outlook 2020 Report (SoER 2020) and the next UN Environment/MAP Mediterranean Quality Status Report (2023).
The potential of ensuring synergies between the upcoming assessments in an integrated and effective way was recognised on various levels:
- Responding to key political questions and commitments;
- Ensuring linkages in the main messages of the produced environmental assessment;
- Activating corresponding partners and networks to ensure full coverage of the Mediterranean region;
- Capturing the key messages for various fora (summary for decision-makers considered essential) through engaging the main stakeholders in the preparation process;
- Exchanging good practices and case studies at both regional and national level;
- Sharing information sources in a practical way;
- Reinforcing the complementarities between the regional assessments by highlighting the main components of the DPSIR framework.
The main outcome of the seminar on regional assessments was the agreement on a joint roadmap by end of March in line with the existing implementation plans and with input from all partners involved in order to reinforce mutually supportive outputs and to provide multiple benefits to key stakeholders and policy makers.
