INBO - Newsletter

33 INBO Newsletter n° 27 - May 2019 Europe Peer to Peer In November 2017, the DG Environ- ment of the European Commission once again selected the consortium formed by the International Office for Water, INBO Secretariat (France, leader partner), the National Institute of Hydrology and Water Management (Romania), the Secretariat of the Medi- terranean Network of Basin Organiza- tions (Spain) and the Ecology Institute (Germany) as part of a new “Peer-to- Peer” project to exchange expertise between Member States. This program continues the peer review process set up over the period 2015-2016. Its aim is to make avai- lable to basins a voluntary system for organizing missions to exchange between peers on implementation of the Water Framework Directive and the Floods Directive. The first step involved a call for appli- cations sent to European practitioners interested in carrying out support mis- sions on the two directives. Over forty applications were made from thirteen European countries, in particular Nordic countries which are familiar with the benefits of crossed reviews. In parallel, a dozen “competent basin authorities” applied to benefit from an expert mission. Based on detailed terms of reference, the secretariat of the mechanism is responsible for selecting the most suitable experts for each mission and guiding their preparation. Following a preparation meeting organized at long distance between stakeholders and with support from the project’s secretariat, technical mis- sions will last about a week and result in reports setting out recommenda- tions by each expert aimed at the basin authorities. All of the documents related to the Peer Review Mechanism from the previous phase and the new “Peer-to-Peer” project are available on the project’s website. Some missions are still available, why not apply to take part? www.aquacoope.org/peertopeer New phase for the cooperation mechanism between European basins to implement the Floods and Water Framework Directives DGENVIRONNEMENT DGEnvironment 27/10/2014 1 Reviewingexpertsforthe PeerReviewproject 5 9 10 10 1 1 12 3 4 2 3 3 1 1 3 Locations of European experts Eurostat, the European Commission’s statistics service, collects national and regional statistics on small and large water cycles from European Union Member States. The data are collected by national sta- tistics institutes in the Member States, which fill in a common questionnaire. To help national statisticians under- stand the key concepts of the water domain and the rules for aggregating data to obtain accurate, representa- tive statistics, Eurostat offers training courses taught by a panel of external specialists. As part of this program, IOWater, INBO Secretariat, in partnership with Sogeti and the Austrian institute UBA, received 13 statisticians of 11 nationalities for a course at its Paris headquarters from 4 to 6 June 2018, along with the Eurostat representative for water sta- tistics. The course, which has taken place since 2012, combines theoretical information, practical exercises and maximum interactivity, leaving ample room for exchanges between partici- pants. To improve understanding of the key concepts of sanitation, a field trip was organized to a water treatment plant at “Seine Centre” following an invitation from SIAAP. Thanks to the efforts of three staff from the presentation team at the “Cité de l’Eau” (Water City), attendees were shown the different stages of the treat- ment process applied to a real case. To make the training even more con- crete, it was supplemented by a presentation from an expert from the Seine-Normandy Water Agency to show how the Water Framework Direc- tive is implemented in the basin. Training of statisticians from 13 countries Meuse and Scheldt Rivers To celebrate twenty years of interna- tional agreements to protect the Meuse and Scheldt Rivers, Members of the two Commissions gathered on 13 Sep- tember 2018 in Charleville-Mézières. They looked back over the two dec- ades of international cooperation and towards the future of both districts. During the afternoon, two workshops addressed the key subjects of quali- tative and quantitative management. They were a chance for members of the commissions to express their opinion, using participative methods, on the future of the districts. The result was a list of recommendations for more effi- cient water management in the Meuse and Scheldt River Basins. Participative workshops for the 20 th anniversary of the two International Commissions The Meuse