The SEIS Support Mechanism-South implemented jointly by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the United Nations Environment Programme/Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP) is a 4-year EU-funded project, building on the outcome of the regional ENPI-SEIS project - “Towards a Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) in the European Neighbourhood”, implemented by the EEA in 2010-2015. The SEIS Support Mechanism-South (envisaged to run in the period February 2016-January 2020) aims to ensure proper linkages with the agreed work programme of Horizon 2020 for its second phase of work (2015-2020) and other relevant EU-funded projects and initiatives in the region.
The specific objective of the SEIS Support Mechanism-South is to improve the availability and access to relevant environmental information to the benefit of effective and knowledge-based policy-making in the ENP South region.
The expected results of the SEIS Support Mechanism-South are:
- The H2020 indicator set is stabilised, refined and complemented in order to be able to serve multiple purposes, as well as to ensure that the progress of achieving H2020 objectives is properly measured, while also contributing to assessing compliance with commitments under the Barcelona Convention.
- The in-country processes for organizing and sharing of data sets underlying the H2020 indicators are stabilised.
- The infrastructure for reporting offered by the EEA (‘Reportnet’) and UNEP (UNEP/MAP Reporting Network) is more widely used.
- Indicator-based H2020 report(s) and assessments are produced in line with good practices from the EU region. This will be complemented by similar reports developed for the EU and West Balkan countries under the upcoming MSFD reporting cycle (2018) in order to come up with a comprehensive picture of the whole Mediterranean region and align the various reporting processes.
This will be achieved through specific regional and country-level activities, aiming at supporting the regional reporting through established and regular national data flows based on common requirements, ensuring coherence and harmonisation of methodologies, as well as policy relevance and uptake of the reported information in support of better environmental governance.
For more information – see the project website: http://eni-seis.eionet.europa.eu/south
