1. The EEA mandate
"To provide the Community and the Member States with objective, reliable and comparable information at European level enabling them to take the requisite measures to protect the environment,to assess the results of such measures and to ensure that the public is properly informed about the state of the environment,."
(Article 1 of EEA Regulation)

2. Main Tasks of the EEA
1. To provide objective, reliable, comparable information enabling the Community and Member States to
frame, identify, prepare, implement, monitor, evaluate and assess the results of sound and effective environmental policy measures and legislation, and
to publish reports on state, trends and prospects for the environment every five years supplemented by indicator reports focusing upon specific issues;
to ensure that the public is properly informed on the state of the environment
2. For this purpose: To collect, record, collate, process, analyse and assess data on the quality, pressures, sensitivity and state of the environment, and develop a reference center
3. To establish and co-ordinate a European environment information and observation network (EIONET)

3. New duties from 1999…
4.“To assist the monitoring of environmental measures through appropriate support for reporting requirements….with the aim of coordinating reporting”
5.“To advise individual Member States, upon their request…..on the development, establishment and expansion of their systems for the monitoring of environmental measures” (resources permitting)

4. M D I A R
From monitoring….
….to reporting

5. MDIAR stands for: R: Reporting M: Monitoring A: Assessment D: Data
I: Information
D: Data
M: Monitoring
M: Monitoring
D: Data
I: Information
A: Assessment
R: Reporting

6. Water: Reporting
Are EU policies contributing to reductions in organic pollution levels in European rivers?

7. Water: Assessment
“Increased industrial and agricultural production, coupled with more of the population being connected to sewerage, has resulted in increases in discharges of organic waste into surface water in most European countries since the 1940s. Over the past 15 to 30 years, however, biological treatment of waste water has increased (see section 11.3), and organic discharges have consequently decreased across most of Europe. The result is that many rivers are now well oxygenated.
During the 1990s the BOD levels improved by around 20-30% in both EU and Accession Country rivers. The improvement in EU countries was largely due to the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, which increased the level of treatment of waste water. “ (Source: Environmental Signals 2002)

8. Water: Information
Annual median concentration of BOD and ammonium in European rivers
Source: EEA, EUROWATERNET

9. Water: Data Monitoring data/metadata (S and I) from MS
Associated D and P data
Aggregated comparable European data/statistics
Disseminated validated aggregated data to public
WATER
Spreadsheets
DEMs
WWW
Access
BASE

10. Water: Monitoring EWN Guidelines for the Water Framework Directive?
Eurowaternet Guidelines for Rivers, Lakes,
Groundwaters,
Water Quantity

11. Policy Objectives and Targets
SOE Reporting Chain
Policy Objectives and Targets
Sectorial Integration
Process
Strategies
Reporting mechanisms
6th Environmental
Action Programme:
Thematic strategies
Business as Usual:
Framework Directives
EU Programmes
Plans
INDICATOR FRAMEWORKS
Themes: Air Pollution, Climate change, Water, Waste, Resource Use, Biodiversity
Sectors: Transport, Energy, Agriculture, Fisheries, Tourism
DATA FLOWS FROM COUNTRIES
Environment: EEA, Eurostat, International Conventions
Socio-economic: Eurostat, OECD, UNSO, FAO, IEA
EUSDS
Synthesis
Report
TERM
EERM
AERM
DG Env
Annual Report
Eurostat
PIPs
Project
Environmental
Signals
EU Headline
Indicators
Standardised
Reporting Directive

12. EEA Indicator Frameworks
Environmental Themes
Climate change
Air pollution
Water Stress
Biodiversity
Terrestrial Environment
Waste and Material Flows
Sectoral Integration
Transport
Energy
Agriculture
Tourism
Fisheries

13. Core set for water
Covers freshwaters, transitional, coastal and marine waters
Issues to be addressed:
Water quantity
Eutrophication and organic pollution
Hazardous substances
Ecological quality
Number of indicators:
Not yet finalised
Likely to be some in total

14. DPSIR Framework for Eutrophication

15. Eutrophication and organic pollution – overview table .

16. Eutrophication and organic pollution – overview table (2)

17. Nutrients in Rivers
Figure 1: Trends in the median of the stations annual average total phosphorus concentrations (g P/l) and nitrate concentrations (mg N/l) in EU15 countries, 1990 to 2000, and Phare Accession countries, Number of stations in brackets.
Data collected by EUROWATERNET from Denmark, Germany, France and the UK. Denmark, Germany, France, and the UK, and Slovenia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Estonia and Bulgaria.

18. Indicator consultation process
Mar/April – Bilaterals with EEA clients
May – Draft proposals for EEA core sets
End May – Presentation at NFP Meeting
June-Aug – formal written procedure with EEA Management Board, EIONET, Commission and NGOs
September – finalise EEA core sets of indicators
October – further presentations to NFP/EIONET meeting and EEA Scientific Committee
November – final proposals for approval to EEA Management Board
December – DGEnv proposal for Directive on reporting ?

19. EEA Added Value
EU policy focus – from SDS to 6th EAP to Strategies to Framework Directives (3 corridors)
Detailed analysis (IEA) using theme/sector frameworks of progress against policy objectives
Focused data collection and policy relevant indicator reports = streamlining!!
Systematic approach to indicators and data flows = improved data quality and assessment to support policy

20. Water Indicator Report 2002
Length - around 50 pages
Contents – issues as covered by core set
Consultation on Factsheets – Summer 2002
Consultation on Assessment – September – October 2002
Pre-publication – November 2002
Final publication – December 2002/January 2003

21. Aim of EUROWATERNET Is to provide representative information on
Rivers, lakes, reservoirs, groundwater bodies
Concept is being extended to transitional, coastal and marine waters (Guidelines being developed in 2002)
Through the progressive implementation of:
Basic network – to provide a general overview
Impact network – to answer specific questions regarding policies, individual substances or pressures
Fully representative networks – statistically robust to enable European-wide and inter-regional comparisons

22. EUROWATERNET
A non-statutory reporting obligation on EEA member countries
EUROWATERNET is a ‘priority data flow’ - agreed by the NFP/EIONET group and EEA Management Board
Information provided is NOT for legal compliance assessment (Commission’s job)
Information can be used to assess the effectiveness of policies (e.g. are the objectives of Directives being met?)

23. EUROWATERNET
Based on existing national and international monitoring networks
Avoids duplication of reporting where possible
Assists in improving existing data flows
Will be consistent with improvements to national monitoring and information networks as a result of Water Framework Directive
Assists capacity building in countries through guidelines, visits and shared learning

24. Eurowaternet Rivers: Most recent year of data

27. Waterbase
The database for managing at European level annual data flows from countries
Contains at the end of 2001 information on:
around river stations in 29 countries,
more than lake stations in 24 countries,
around 300 groundwater bodies in 20 countries
Web access already available for groundwaters; available soon for rivers and lakes

28. EWN and Eurostat JQ Eurowaternet Eurostat/OECD JQ For EEA indicators
Stratification by size, driving force to deliver comparable data
Nutrients, hazardous substances, biology etc
Physical characteristics – mean depth, altitude, catchment area, soil type
Proxy pressures – population density, land use
Eurostat/OECD JQ
For OECD SOE reports
Largest rivers and lakes selected by countries.
Nutrients, hazardous substances, biology etc
Physical characteristics – none
Proxy pressures - none