The 15th session of the UNECE Joint Task Force on Environmental Statistics and Indicators took place on 25 and 26 October 2018 in Geneva. Environmental experts and statisticians from the following countries attended the meeting: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Finland, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Representatives of the EEA, UNEP (the United Nations Environment Programme) and the OECD also attended the meeting.

The ENI SEIS II East  project funded the participation of the 10 experts from the Eastern Partnership countries.

The main points discussed were:

1. the amendment to the UNECE Guidelines for the Application of Environmental Indicators: this will include updating and revising the glossary and guidelines, metadata and search database and revising the web-based guidelines;
2. the UNECE updated environmental indicators, based on SEIS principles, with regard to both producing and sharing environmental information that is aligned with the 2030 agenda for sustainable development;
3. finalising the extended analytical report on the status of producing and sharing core environmental indicators for Eastern Partnership countries, which is out for consultation with the countries;
4. improving the updated version of the SEIS assessment framework.