The EEA, with support from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Lithuania, evaluated the maturity of environmental information sharing and dissemination in the six Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine). The evaluation aimed to help the countries develop national roadmaps with concrete measures to modernise environmental information systems and raise the profile of environmental information in national open data and e-government processes.

Discussions in Yerevan focused on:

• upgrading environmental information and its availability;
• collaboration between environment, open data and e-governance systems;
• Armenia’s progress as reflected in the roadmap.

Key roadmap points that need to be incorporated into open data and e-governance systems are:

• complex measures for the dissemination and exchange of environmental data through open data and their electronic management tools, which may be disseminated for further public discussion and approval;
• complex measures to implement the requirements of the Aarhus Convention and the Kyiv Protocol for Pollutant Release and Transfer;
• further development of SEIS in the Eastern Partnership, influencing the processes of pan-European evaluation.

The national workshop highlighted the need for the right governance model, legal and licensing framework and for mechanisms for enabling sharing and dissemination of environmental information on open data and eco-portals. In addition, it pointed to the need to work on the development of environmental information systems, metadata and information/data sharing standards, while increasing awareness in both public institutions and among citizens.

The outcomes of the round table were:

• a finalised roadmap/set of actions for improving the dissemination and sharing of environmental data through e-governance and open data initiatives that could be disseminated for further public consultation and approval;
• a set of measures for continuing the implementation of the Aarhus Convention, the Kyiv Protocol for Pollutant Release and Transfer (as applicable), SEIS principles and other international commitments.

Participants discussed the roadmap and the conclusions on open data and e-government for Ukraine, issues in the development of the environmental information system Open Environment, and how to exchange environmental information between executive authorities.

This event, which is part of ongoing EU-funded technical assistance, follows a regional event in Kyiv, Ukraine, 5-6 March 2019, where representatives from all six Eastern Partnership countries reviewed the findings of the evaluation of the maturity of open data for the environment. Findings of the national round tables were presented in the second regional workshop on open data and e-government for the environment, back-to-back with the sixth meeting of the Task Force on Access to Information under the Aarhus Convention, 2-4 October 2019.