The European Environment Agency (EEA), with support from the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) and 4sfera in cooperation with national authorities, is evaluating the status of the air quality monitoring and use of air quality data in the six Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Republic of Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine).  The experts will share EU/EEA examples on the air quality monitoring with the aim to increase the use and public accessibility of air quality data.

The  workshop will focus on several issues identified during the previous workshop, such as on how:

• to ensure reliable measurements and data;
• to ensure that data from different measurement stations and zones/cities can be compared;
• to ensure that data has known measurement uncertainty;
• to ensure increase trust by the recipient of the measurement results, among others.

It is expected that around 25 experts, both national and international, will join the workshop.

The very first results from this exercise are already visible as Georgia started reporting up-to-date (UTD) data on air quality and automatically to the EU air quality index to the EEA on voluntarily basis since April 2019. The data can be accessed through the European Air Quality Index: https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/air/air-quality-index/index. Data presented on the map are linked to the Air Quality Portal in Georgia: http://air.gov.ge/en/