13th EMWIS Steering Committee meeting

EMWIS Steering Committee Meeting will take place on the sidelines of the FEMIP conference on “Sustainable water financing and climate change in the Mediterranean” scheduled in Monaco on 11 May 2009.

This meeting will bring together EMWIS Steering Committee members, i.e.  water directors from Algeria, Cyprus, Spain, France, Italy, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Palestine and Turkey, as well as observers from: the European Commission, European Environment Agency, Med-EUWI and IME, Monaco Environment Directorate.

This meeting will review EMWIS achievements between 2004 and 2008 as well as current activities (Information systems harmonisation, Med Joint Process) and budget. The renewal procedure of Steering committee membership will be discussed in relation with the Water Expert Group of the Union for the Mediterranean -UfM- (e.g. openness to all UfM members, EMWIS governance).

This meeting will also serve to discuss the activity launched with a working group of countries and regional organisations on  the reinforcement and coordination of existing regional initiatives and networks on water information following the request from the UfM Ministerial conference on water (December 2008). Finally, the different existing and to be launched collaborations  with international initiatives will be reviewed.