1. TAPAS coordination meeting 11 September 2007

2. Organisational aspects

3. Official communication
All requests for payment and other financial information, technical reports and all other correspondence: The European Commission Directorate-General Eurostat Unit E1 Mr Hubert CHARLIER BECH B2/472 L-2920 Luxembourg

4. Project Manager Eurostat: Johan Selenius
Country: mentioned in the grant contract
Contact on both sides for all questions related to the contract, responsible for making sure that things run smoothly
Draft reports, technical questions, financial questions can be ed for easy progress

5. Pre-financing Final payment
30% of contract value should have been paid already
Exception: Belgium
Final payment
After end of contract
No interim payments
Final payment request to be sent with
the final technical implementation report
a final financial statement
a complete summary of real income and of real expenditure of the action in an excel-file

6. Deadlines
Contract running time specified in article I.2 of the contract
Final technical implementation report and financial statement within 45 days of the end of the contract
Draft technical implementation report can be sent before, to allow more time to discussions and shorter approval time
Commission has 90 days to approve or reject reports and to pay balance

7. Amendments to the contract
Contract can be amended, if there is a proper justification
Amendments are complicated processes, so they should be avoided, if possible
If problems arise, please contact Eurostat as soon as possible to discuss what can be done
Any change in the organisation, bank accounts, etc need to be reported
If an amendment is considered necessary, an official request must be sent in well ahead of the end of the contract, to allow the procedures to be launched in time

8. Background

9. Main conclusions of Commission Communication September 2006 (COM(2006)508):
streamlining the IRENA indicator set, while strengthening its relevance for policy purposes;
consolidating the selected set of indicators, extending the coverage to the new Member States and correcting existing weaknesses;
setting up a permanent and stable arrangement needed for the long-term functioning of the indicator system.

10. Council of Agriculture and Fisheries 19-21.12. 2007
A coherent set of agri-environmental indicators is required to capture the regional diversity of agriculture and environmental conditions as well as their positive and negative influences;
need for comparable data at the appropriate geographical level, and covering the whole Community, using, as far as possible, existing data sources and data collection structures;
the list of indicators could be adjusted as a result of policy requirements or on the basis of experience with the further development of the indicators and their use in policy making;
close account should be taken of the costs and resource implications of any new initiative related to data collection that goes beyond existing legal requirements;
a long-term information system for monitoring environmental integration to be set up, with the help of the CPSA.

11. Chosen Indicators
Operational indicators, for which the concept and measurement are well-defined and for which data are available at national and, where appropriate, at regional level
Indicators that are well defined, but cannot realise their full information potential due to a lack of regional data or weaknesses in the modelling approaches on which they are based
Indicators that need substantial improvements in order to become fully operational. These include indicators that have conceptual limitations or are not well defined and indicators where the quality of existing data needs to be improved, new data collection systems need to be set up, or where modelling tools need to be further developed

12. Operational indicatorsNo
Title
Main data source 2
Agricultural areas under Natura 2000
ENV database 4
Area under organic farming
AGRI admin. Data, FSS 7
Irrigation
FSS 12
Intensification/extensification
FADN, FSS 13
Specialisation 19
Greenhouse gas emissions
UNFCCC reports, EEA

13. Indicators that are well defined (I)No
Title
Main data source 1
Agri-environmental commitments
AGRI admin. data 3
Farmers’ training levels and environmental farm advisory services
FSS, AGRI admin. data 5
Mineral fertiliser consumption
New fertiliser survey 8
Energy use
Energy stats, FADN 9
Land use change
OECD/Eurostat joint questionnaire 10
Cropping/Livestock patterns
FSS 11
Farm management practices
FSS, new SAPM 15
Gross nitrogen balance
New data collection

14. Indicators that are well defined (II)No
Title
Main data source 18
Ammonia emissions
UNECE/EMEP reports 21
Soil erosion
JRC soil database 24
Production of renewable energy
FSS, admin. and other sources 25
Population trends of farmland birds
Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring project 27
Water quality – Nitrate pollution, Pesticide pollution
Eurowaternet

15. Indicators that need substantial improvementsNo
Title
Main data source 6
Consumption of pesticides
New pesticide survey 14
Risk of land abandonment
Modelling 16
Risk of pollution by phosphorous
New data collection 17
Pesticide risk 20
Water abstraction
SAPM, modelling 22
Genetic diversity
FAO 23
High nature value farmland 26
Soil quality
JRC soil database 28
Landscape – state and diversity

16. Setting up the indicator system (I)
A Memorandum of Understanding is being set up between Eurostat, AGRI, ENV, JRC and the EEA
A lead institution will be assigned for each indicator. This role includes drafting and updating the AEI fact sheets, compiling the indicator, consulting other partners, coordinating the work to be done, prepare progress reports and work programs
All partners are collaborating in data collection and management, improving concepts and methodology, modelling and data
Eurostat will coordinate all activities related to data acquisition, validation and dissemination, as well as the development, compilation and maintenance of the indicators
DG AGRI will assess periodically if the AEI set and the work carried out serves the needs and if needed initiate discussions on possible further work to be done

17. Setting up the indicator system (II)
Eurostat will take the lead for those indicators that are related to the European statistical system.
DG AGRI will take the lead for certain indicators that have a specific political interest and/or that have not yet been fully developed.
DG ENV will take a lead for indicators where the policy developments have been assigned mainly to this institution, for example on pesticide risks.
DG JRC will take the lead for those indicators relying on the pan- European geo-environmental databases or where models need to be built.
EEA will take the lead in areas where the responsibility has been assigned mainly to this institution, by agreements between ENV, JRC, Eurostat and EEA.

18. Need for regional information

19. LSU/ ha
2005
2000 ∆
France
0.82
0.86
-0.03
-4.06%
Île de France
0.09
0.10
-0.01
-13.08%
Languedoc-Roussillon
0.23
0.26
-10.91%
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
0.27
0.01
1.88%
Centre
0.30
0.32
-0.02
-6.67%
Champagne-Ardenne
0.35
0.36
-3.28%
Picardie
0.38
0.42
-0.04
-9.70%
Corse
0.44
0.47
-6.44%
Alsace
0.53
0.58
-0.05
-8.58%
Poitou-Charentes
0.55
-5.74%
Bourgogne
0.62
-6.48%
Midi-Pyrénées
0.66
-5.04%
Lorraine
0.67
0.73
-0.06
-8.73%
Haute-Normandie
0.74
0.77
-3.91%
Franche-Comté
0.76
0.80
-5.49%
Aquitaine
0.79
0.78
1.34%
Rhône-Alpes
0.81
0.83
-2.79%
Nord - Pas-de-Calais
0.88
0.93
-6.10%
Auvergne
0.89
0.91
-1.90%
Limousin
1.04
1.05
-1.32%
Basse-Normandie
1.18
1.24
-4.95%
Pays de la Loire
1.61
1.66
-2.46%
Bretagne
2.77
2.91
-0.14
-4.97%

20. Gross surplus for 1x1 km grid cells

21. Other AEI lists with nutrient balances
The nutrient balances are considered to be a good indicator, and thus it is included in many indicator lists.
The Sustainable Development Indicators is one of the most used indicator lists in the EU, containing 3 different indicator levels. The nitrogen surplus is one of the indicators, but has not been included in the last monitoring report due to lack of EU-wide data.
The Rural Development Impact and Context Indicators (Axis) also includes the Gross nutrient balances as an Axis 2, environment Objective related baseline indicator. The changes in gross nutrient balance is an impact indicator.
EEA has chosen the Gross Nutrient Balances as part of their Core Set of Indicators.
The Joint Working Party on Agriculture and Environment of the OECD has decided on a set of AEI to be published regularly. In the last meeting in July, it was decided to suggest to include the GNB in the joint Eurostat/OECD Questionnaire on the State of the Environment.

22. Timing and planning of the TAPAS work

24. Two coordination meetings planned
11 September 2007
Second one open
Need to be within the timeframes of the actions for those countries who have included the travel costs in the budget