A Commission Communication on the European Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) has been issued by the European Union (EU). The proposed Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) is a decentralized but integrated web-enabled information system based on a network of public information providers sharing environmental data and information. With SEIS environmentally-relevant data and information would be stored in environmental databases throughout the European Union and would be interconnected virtually and be compatible.
The Task Force on Electronic Information Tools to the Aarhus Convention discussed the significance of SEIS to promoting access to environmental information and ways of furthering its development, at its sixth meeting, 13-14 December 2007. It recognized SEIS as a relevant regional initative supporting the implementation of the Convention.
An Europa site of SEIS will be operational soon.
For the complete text of the Communication, Towards a Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS), see http://ec.europa.eu/prelex/detail_dossier_real.cfm?CL=en&DosId=196687. See also the report of the sixth meeting of the Task Force on Electronic Information Tools – http://www.unece.org/env/documents/2008/ece/WG.1/ece_mp_pp_wg_1_2008_4_e.pdf (paragraphs 22 and 41(i) ).
