The seventh 'Environment for Europe' Ministerial Conference was held on 21 - 23 September 2011 in Astana, Kazakhstan. To support the Conference the European Environment Agency produced a report entitled ‘Europe’s Environment – An Assessment of Assessments’.
The report "Europe's Environment - An Assessment of Assessments" (EEAoA) was produced by the European Environment Agency with the support of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Steering Group on Environmental Assessments (UNECE SGEA) and in cooperation with the European Environment Information and Observation Network (EIONET). As Chief Inspector of Environmental Protection is a Vice-Chair of the EEA Management Board and coordinates Polish EIONET as well as participates in the work of the SGEA, Chief Inspectorate was involved in the work on the EEAoA report. The idea of the report was to prepare the assessment of the available state of environment assessments, produced at global, regional and local level, concerning key Astana Conference subjects - green economy and water. The authors looked at more than 1000 reports. The methodology and the concept behind the report was inspired by the UN Marine "Assessment of Assessments". The EEAoA report as well as the key messages of the Conference indicate the need for regular process of environmental assessment within Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS). The EEAoA report is a key input in developing such a process and streamlining the systems of assessments. The report highlights the need for making the assessments more focused on concrete actions (measures and management) under environmental policy. Particularly, it is necessary to carry out the analysis of the effectiveness of the actions and instruments, using relevant indicators.
During the Astana Conference the initiatives held by UNECE under the "Environment for Europe" process were discussed. The Polish delegation, coordinating the EU member states position, was led by the Minster of Environment - Andrzej Kraszewski. The information on the conference is available at the ME website. The Chief Inspector of Environmental Protection - Andrzej Jagusiewicz - attended the conference, taking also part in the panel discussion during an EEA side event "Sharing information: SEIS and Eye on Earth for regular environmental reporting and assessments in the pan-European region"
Astana EEA SEIS event
EEA on "Europe's Environment - An Assessment of Assessments" report