The Progress of the EMAS Peer Review for Cities Project

The project has progressed well to its second year, first peer review was carried out in Leeds in January. Peer reviews in Jelgava, Liepaja, Panevezys, Siauliai, Diisseldorf, Rostock, Bristol and Barcelona have been carried out in March. The remaining peer reviews in Gdansk and Sopot will be carried out in April. Goteborg, Tallinn, Viljandi and Newcastle peer reviews will be carried out in May. Porto and Athens peer reviews will take place in June.

Desktop study on EMAS and 6EAP linkages has been concluded and first pilot studies in project cities have taken place. The survey questionnaire to complement the pilot studies is being prepared and will be sent out to European cities in April/May.

The tool kit of the project - workbook - is being tested by the cities. All cities have given their feedback on developed workbooks to guide the EMAS implementation. After peer reviews the final part of the workbook that guides EMAS peer reviews will be evaluated. Valuable comments and suggestions will be integrated into the final workbook during the summer.

The final event of the project will be the forum to disseminate the project experience and it will take place in Autumn 2004. The program, exact timing and the place of the event are currently under preparation and the information will be released as soon as possible the decisions have been made.

This project will provide our member cities with valuable tool kit and experience to better manage the environmental concerns and possibilities in our cities. UBC Commission of Environment team is utilising the experienced gained in this and earlier projects and is currently preparing a new project proposal to the European Commission to further develop EMS to manage the environmental challenges in the whole urban area.