EU cooperation with South Neighborhood countries in the field of water and environment: SWIM, H2020 and SEIS

In 2016, the EU relaunched its regional cooperation programmes SWIM for Sustainable Water Integrated Management, H2020 for the depolution of the Mediterranean Sea and ENI SEIS for Shared Environment Information System. The joint steering committee of SWIM-H2020 support mechanism was held in Brussels on 27-28 September 2016. It gathered focal points from water and environment ministries of South Mediterranean and Balkan countries and a few international partners. Based on a country needs assessment (following multi-stakeholder concertation in each country) and final exchanges with the Focal Points a programme for targeted national support via an "expert facility" and regional actions were defined (see programme website). In addition, the 1st Steering Committee meeting of the ENI-SEIS II South Project and 7th meeting of the H2020 Review and Monitoring (RM) Group will be held on 12-14 December 2016 in Athens. This meeting is jointly organised by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the UNEP/MAP Secretariat. The main objective of the ENI SEIS II South Steering Committee meeting will be to agree on the development of the SEIS work plans at regional and national level in line with identified needs and based on the proposed guidelines. The expected outcome is the endorsement of the upcoming work plan of activities for the project implementation that will be also annually reviewed during the project Steering Committee meetings