The pan-European environment

The UNECE 'Environment for Europe' process brings together 56 countries across three continents to jointly address environmental challenges. The EEA's series of environmental assessments of the pan-European region provides policy-relevant, up‑to-date and reliable information on the interactions between the environment and society.

EEA's first comprehensive assessment of the state of the pan‑European environment was presented in Sofia in 1995. Updated assessments were presented at the Ministerial Conferences in Aarhus in 1998, in Kiev in 2003 and in Belgrade in 2007.

The political landscape of our continent has changed fundamentally since then. Today 27 of the 56 UNECE Members are members of the EU and most of the remainder have links with the EU especially in the environmental sector.

In this context, the 'EfE process' was redefined and refocused in 2007 with the aim of avoiding unnecessary duplication of activities and better resources allocation. A key challenge of this reform process is to enhance environmental monitoring and to streamline the implementation of commitments to existing UNECE instruments.

As result of the new 'EfE' process of reform, a pan-European 'Assessment of assessments' report was identified as one of the key inputs and outputs of the Astana ministerial conference to be held 21-23 September 2011.

	Europe's environment — An Assessment of Assessments Launch: 21 September 2011

The EEA was requested to lead the reporting process and proposed a general approach for future regular reporting in the region based on a shared information system (SEIS concept).

The methodological basis for an assessment of assessments was developed during the United Nations Marine Assessment of Assessments commissioned by the United Nations General Assembly in 2009. The present report demonstrates the robustness and viability of extending an assessment of assessments process to a broader set of thematic and geographic perspectives. For the assessment of assessments presented here, almost 1 000 environmental assessment reports were identified and recorded in a dedicated virtual library, with the support of experts across 53 UNECE countries and international organisations.

• EEA presence at the Astana ministerial conference

• More information about the 'Environment for Europe' process on the UNECE website

• More EEA products on water  and green economy