The 4th meeting of the Horizon 2020 RMR Sub-group gathered a number of experts from the Southern Mediterranean and West Balkan partner countries, as well as key partners from international organisations and other projects in Copenhagen on 11-12 June.
The 4th meeting of the Horizon 2020 RMR Sub-group gathered a number of experts from the Southern Mediterranean and West Balkan partner countries, as well as key partners from international organisations and other projects in Copenhagen on 11-12 June.
In light of the mid-term review of the Horizon 2020 Initiative, the 4th RMR meeting took stock of recent developments under the Horizon 2020 umbrella and steps towards setting up a regular reporting mechanism to feed into the regional Horizon 2020 report. The EEA is undertaking this first reporting exercise within the framework of the ENPI-SEIS project jointly with UNEP/MAP and in close coordination with the two other Horizon 2020 components (Capacity Building and Pollution Reduction) and the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfMS) ensuring a proper streamlining of efforts. The participants discussed various aspects of the reporting process itself, covering reporting tools, templates and specifications, as well as the current status of data delivery from the countries. The meeting took into consideration the indicator development process and the outcomes of the last ENPI-SEIS South Working Group on Environmental Indicators, as well as experiences from the national workshops on indicators held over the period March-June 2013. The reporting process and status of deliveries by the countries was presented and discussed.
As of the end of September, five out of nine partner countries set in place their national network with the identification of the data reporters and six countries delivered the requested data sets (the Mediterranean Data Repository is prepared to accept national deliveries - http://mdr.eionet.europa.eu/). The national network set-up in most of the countries includes the ENPI-SEIS National Focal Points, as well as members of the working groups on indicators and IT together with relevant thematic experts. The national workshops have been an important step in the process (both in terms of content development and coordination among partners), but challenges remain in terms of human resources available, and in ensuring sustainability of the process and the necessary policy support to a regular reporting. One of the main achievements is the development of the common set of indicators and institutional arrangements put in place to elaborate the country contributions to the Horizon 2020 report. The RMR participants recognised the fact that the activities put in place are progressing well but ensuring sustainability of the cooperation is crucial.
This first Horizon 2020 reporting exercise provides the appropriate ground to implement the SEIS principles and enhanced effort in designing integrated national environmental information systems through using in an efficient way the available data and information on the Horizon 2020 priority areas.
The summary record of the meeting, presentations and other documentation from the 4th RMR sub-group meeting are available at the following link:
http://coordination.h2020.net/rmr/meetings/copy_of_2012-06-04-rmr-meeting
