Eionet priority data flows, May 2013 – April 2014

The purpose of the report is to show progress against agreed, stable and well-defined criteria, in order to allow countries to identify and confirm the institutional resources they need for regular reporting procedures.

It also aims to encourage better performance through friendly competition amongst countries concentrating on achievements rather than failures. Progress has again been assessed against criteria for some 13 regular priority areas. Information is also provided for three additional data flows: reporting to EEA on near-real time ozone, water quantity and emissions to water.

The 16 data flows presented in this report are a subset of EEA's data collection activities. They represent about 1000 out of a total of 2600 data deliveries received between May 2013 and April 2014. All 33 EEA member countries and the six cooperating West Balkan countries (which together constitute the 'Eionet') participate in the priority data flows exercise.

The provision of high‑quality data by the Eionet is fundamental for the EEA to achieve its mission to provide timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policymakers and the public. During the reporting period, no country was able to achieve the full score of 100 %, which would indicate timely and complete data deliveries across all 13 priority areas. Estonia and Ireland shared this year's top score of 98 %, followed by Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Slovenia and Sweden (all at 96 %). Overall, the report finds the same average score across all countries as in the previous period (81 %). Eight countries were able to improve their scores significantly (i.e. more than 5 %), however not less than nine countries had significantly lower scores. Again, just under two-thirds of Eionet countries achieved or exceeded the average whereas 14 countries remained below.

Neither the EEA nor any country in the network can be complacent with stagnating average scores over several years (80 % in 2010, compared to 81 % this year). The EEA's Multiannual Work Programme 2014–2018 defines the following as one of the performance indicators: at least 90 % average scoring in Eionet data flows by 2018.

The use of Reportnet tools to facilitate data flows has again increased during the past year as the European Commission's DG Environment continues to channel more data collection through Reportnet services. Improvements have also been fostered by the increased number of data collections which receive quality feedback reports from experts via public online channels and by the timely responses provided by national data reporters.