Final year of EUWI+
New era of water management in EU Eastern Neighborhood Countries
This year the EU Water Initiative Plus for Eastern Partnership Countries (EUWI+) enters its final phase.
The year 2020 starts with the celebration of the newly renovated and equipped environmental monitoring laboratory in Yerevan, Armenia, on Friday, 31 January. The event will be hosted by the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Environment, guests will include the ambassadors of Austria and of the EU. Laboratories will also open in Ukraine and Belarus this spring. The new laboratories are one of the key milestones towards water quality monitoring and water resource management in line with the European Water Framework Directive.
Thanks to the recent technological upgrade and renovation of the laboratory in Armenia, national laboratory experts now conduct state-of-the-art water analysis. The new devices can detect contamination with greater precision and hence ensure an advanced Level of protection for water and river basins as well as healthy drinking water supplies for Armenians. In the previous months, experts of the Umweltbundesamt, the Environment Agency Austria, have trained Armenian laboratory experts on laboratory standards and water quality monitoring. The European Union provides high-end equipment and training in the framework of EUWI+.
Upcoming milestones
EUWI+ has significantly improved water monitoring infrastructures and processes in six Eastern Partnership countries. River basin management plans have been developed and will be consolidated by the end of the year. During the next few months, some Eastern Partner countries will instal monitoring facilities to expand the monitoring networks in the partner countries. With the support of Environment Agency Austria experts, local experts in Kyiv and Minsk are preparing for their water laboratory openings in March and April. By the end of the year, each partner country will host a final event with high level representatives of ist country, the European Union and all implementing partners to celebrate their achievements over the past four years.
About EUWI+
Launched in September 2016 for a duration of four years, the European Union Water Initiative plus for the Eastern Partnership Programme (EUWI+) is one of the EU's biggest committments to policy dialogue and technical support in the water sector of the Eastern Partner countries. The programme supports six partner countries (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine) in the alignment of their legislation with the European Union's policy on water management, with a strong focus on transboundary rivers. It provides support to the development of a long-term vision of water sector reforms in the partner countries. The project is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and an EU Member States consortium comprised of the Environment Agency Austria and the International Office for Water (France).
The Environment Agency Austria contributes to this cooperation especially specific with its know-how and experience in water monitoring and laboratory development. In the EU's Eastern Partner countries, not only the technical knowledge of the Austrian experts is required but also their experience in institutional capacity building.
