The ENI SEIS II South national focal points endorsed the project's 2019-2020 work plan and reviewed the results of the project in 2018. This was a joint meeting with the ninth meeting of the Horizon 2020 (H2020) Review and Monitoring Group and it took place in Vienna, 6-7 November 2018.

This meeting was co-chaired by the EEA and the UN Environment / MAP. It was attended by, the SEIS and MED POL national focal points from the ENI South countries, Montenegro and Turkey. With additional representatives from the European Commission Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) secretariat (via Skype) and partner organisation, Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE), the European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine Waters (ETC/ICM), Umweltbundesamt (UBA) Vienna and Zoï Environment Network. 

Key highlights of the meeting:

• took stock of the political and policy developments and the contributions of the regional institutions involved;
• took stock of progress achieved in 2018 with respect to the review and monitoring component of H2020 and the ENI SEIS II South project implementation,
• discussed relevant developments linked to selection and agreement on set of indicators, preparation of indicators factsheets and recent development of infrastructure for data reporting,
• agreed on the way forward to fulfil the H2020 roadmap;
• acknowledged processes towards building the information systems in the countries to populate the selected set of indicators for regional assessment;
• acknowledged delays in the implementation of the project, national activities that are behind schedule, in particular the signature of bilateral agreements (Small Scale Funding Agreements) to operationalise the in-country support and implement SEIS national work plans;
• discussed and agreed on the steps towards the next H2020 assessment, highlighting that there is no duplication of work, and that this assessment will use State of Environment and Development report (drivers) and Quality Status Report (state);
• endorsed the regional work plan for 2019-2020, underlining the increased focus on the assistance to countries requiring strong coordination and full engagement from the partner countries in the ENI South region.

 Within the margins of the meeting, bilateral meetings between EEA-UN Environment MAP and partner country representatives took place on 5 and 7 October 2018 in the afternoon.

Read documents (Meeting report, background documents, presentations) here.