Final Conference

Twinning SK03/IB/EN/01

Institution Building in the Environmental Sector

„Progress in Priority Dataflow Reporting“

by RTA Ulrike Stärk

staerk@sazp.sk

ulrike.staerk@umweltbundesamt.at

Twinning SK03/IB/EN/01

Objective : strengthen administrative, monitoring and enforcement capacity in the environmental sector and improve reporting (air, water, waste, nature)

Guaranteed result: improvement in national environmental data reporting from Slovakia to European institutions, esp. the EEA

Specific, practical, and easily measurable project objective: improved ranking of Slovakia in the Priority Dataflow Assessment of the EEA

Environmental Reporting in Slovakia

MoE delegated responsibility for fulfilling environmental reporting obligations to Slovak Environmental Agency (SEA)

EEA National Focal Point located at SEA; coordinates Priority Dataflow Reporting

streamlined approach: together with Umweltbundesamt SEA is building a National Reporting Obligations Database (SK REPORTnet) to execute this demanding task

SK REPORTnet: info on who does what in environmental reporting

What are Priority Data Flows ?

national environmental data reporting obligations towards EEA; of special importance for implementation of environmental legislation and policy-planning.

focus on agreed, stable and well-defined data collection areas, to allow countries to focus their resources to put regular data reporting procedures in place

key thematic areas: air pollutant emissions, air and water quality data as well as data on protected areas (currently 12 data flows)

annual scoring; used for EEA indicator-based reporting

Status in 2004

7th EEA Priority Dataflow Progress Report (8/04)

so far, continuous progress (2000-2003):

72% of possible data set deliveries Rank 15 (of 32 EEA member countries) No delivery of data to EEA Central Data

Repository (CDR) – common practice with EEA member countries

First steps towards progress

Goal: improve EEA national network National Reference Centre (NRCs) network was

reviewed: 11 national institutions were invited to nominate experts (35 in total) to provide best available data in specific expert areas

Experts received basic training in EIONET tools (ROD, CDR, CIRCA)

NRC technical capacity (Internet, EIONET access) assessed

Oct 2004: Priority Dataflow Workshop at SEA to improve national Slovak data deliveries to EEA (SEA decides to upload deliveries to CDR)

Status PDF Reporting in 2005

Total score of 84% of possible data set deliveries (+12% compared to 2004)

6th place in EEA 2005 ranking (2004 data) of 32 EEA member countries

Improvement due to Increased awareness of reporting tasks among Slovak

institutions as a result of a PDF workshop and systematic follow-up on Priority Dataflows

Streamlining of dataflows, better communication between institutions involved in PDF reporting

International (Austrian) expertise with Priority Dataflow Reporting directly passed on to Slovak experts; hands-on training with different Reportnet tools.

Constant Progress in PDF Reporting

Overallperformanceof countries

in 2004

Status 2006 (1)

CLRTAP: +1 for on-time delivery

First ever NEC delivery

UNFCCC data were delivered

EU-GHG: +1 for inventory report

Status 2006 (2)

Annual ozone: EoI station codes not provided

Designated areas: information on altitude, habitats + centre coordinates provided by 15/6, credited in 2007

Status 2006 (3)

New dataflow water quantity: 2 smileys

Maximum score for 1st delivery on contaminated sites management

Draft 2006 PDF Assessment

Draft summary of national deliveries published on EEA website end May 2006 – 2 week deadline for NFP comments

Further improvement for Slovak Republic Highlights: first deliveries under NEC Directive

and on contaminated sites management, maximum score achieved

+1 points for CLRTAP and EU-GHG 2 smileys for new dataflow water quantity Problem with UNFCCC

Draft 2006 PDF Assessment

CDDA (Central Database on Designated Areas): missing information on altitude (for a total of 1154 areas) and centre points (for 52 areas), were provided by SNC before the reporting deadline, 15 June 2006.

CDDA data considered first delivery of the next reporting cycle, so relevant credit (i.e. smileys) will only be awarded in the course of the 2007 assessment.

The 2006 data request includes specific request to deliver digital boundaries for designated areas – SNC ready to deliver complete datasets

Success Factors

Success reflects the good cooperation between involved institutions

Reliable network of experts at NRCs Good NFP coordination Raised awareness of importance of priority

dataflows Growing commitment of institutions involved

in environmental reporting

Outlook

Big challenge: keep up the good work, stay committed

Room for improvement in several PDF areas including UNFCCC, timely delivery of annual ozone, CDDA

Close follow-up of Slovak NFP for EEA of new data requests, and related changes to the network

Continue cooperation at European level (SEEIS) Problem/risk: frequent change of staff at

governmental institutions

Resumé

Project successfully concluded All mandatory results reached (including

improvement in operational reporting to EEA), project objective and purpose reached

Wonderful personal memories of two years spent in Slovakia

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

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