The 16th session of the UNECE Joint Task Force on Environmental Statistics and Indicators took place on 28 and 29 October 2019 in Geneva. Environmental experts and statisticians from the following countries attended the meeting: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, the North Macedonia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Representatives of the EEA, UNEP (the United Nations Environment Programme), UNSD (the United Nations Statistics Division) and the OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) also attended the meeting. The ENI SEIS II East project funded the participation of the 11 experts from the Eastern Partnership countries.

The task force focused on:

• The election of the Chair and Vice-Chairs for 2 years: Ms Ekaterina Poleshchuk became the chair, supported by two vice-chairs Ms Sevala Korajcevic and Ms Natalia Shashlova.
• The amendment of the UNECE Guidelines for the application of environmental indicators: updating and revision of the glossary, metadata and guidelines.
• Development of environmental indicators in Europe, ENI countries and the pan-European region that are aligned with the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and new political agendas such as the New European Green Deal. This amendment process will support the pan-European assessment process and the Ministerial meeting in 2021.
• Updating the SEIS assessment framework and using this assessment for the pan-European reporting process in 2020/2021.