TWINNING LIGHT PROJECT FICHE
BASIC INFORMATION
1.1. CRIS and Twinning Number: BG 2007/019-303.07.03.26, BG/2007/IB/EN/01/UE/TWL
1.2. Title: Preparing to implement the environment-related themes of Directive 2007/2/EC “INSPIRE” with focus on Annex I.9 “Protected Areas”
1.3. Location: Sofia, Bulgaria
BACKGROUND
Directive 2007/2/EC establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) aims to provide policy-makers, planners, managers and the public with harmonised spatial information services at European, national and regional/local levels. The Directive developed from an initiative in the environment sector and requires harmonisation of rules for the exchange, sharing access and use of interoperable spatial data across the various levels of public authority.
The Annexes of the Directive define general and environmental spatial data themes for which standardised metadata, harmonised network services, data-sharing and co-ordination measures are required. According the time-plan for implementation of the Directive, harmonised metadata are to be provided for spatial data themes of Annex I already in 2010, among which the environmentally relevant themes are Protected Areas (Annex I.9). These themes can be regarded as pilot implementation in the environmental field, since more environmental themes will be covered in a later implementation stage through Annex III.
The State Agency for Information Technology and Communication (SAITC) is the appointed institution at national level for transposing the Directive. A specialized legislative act which is in the process of approval will regulate the involvement of various national institutions in maintaining the respective registers and databases in the country. In implementation of this act, MoEW will have to bring the respective registers and environmental databases in compliance with the requirements of the Directive and to submit to EC and JRC the package of metadata for them.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSIGNMENT
3.1 Beneficiary
The Beneficiaries of the project will be the Ministry of Environment and Water and especially – National Nature Protection Service (NNPS) and Budget, Finance and Economic Activity (BFEA) directorates, with support from the Executive Environment Agency (ЕЕА). The activities will be carried out in co-ordination with the leading institution for implementing the INSPIRE Directive in Bulgaria which is at present the State Agency for Information Technology and Communications (SAITC). NNPS, BFEA and ExEA within MoEW are responsible for register and databases of Protected Areas, and are therefore the direct beneficiaries of the project’s results.
3.1.1. Detailed description of the main beneficiary institution
The Ministry of Environment and Water (MOEW) is the competent authority responsible for development and implementation of the state policy in the field of Environment and Water protection. The MOEW performs some of these activities through the Executive Environmental Agency (EEA) and a network of 15 Regional Inspectorates of Environment and Water (RIEW) that are specialized control bodies of the Ministry.
The NNPS directorate has responsibilities regarding to:
- developing the protected areas’ network – notification of new protected areas and carrying out of procedures for changes in their boundaries, statutes and surface.
- elaboration of protected areas management plans, control of their implementation and coordination of the activities in protected areas.
- creation and maintenance of specialized map, register and information system about the protected areas containing necessary spatial and other data.
- maintenance of information portal for biodiversity, as part of the global mechanism for exchange of information, which is being built up by the Biodiversity convention (Clearing House Mechanism – CHM). Its purpose is direct provision or giving references to requisite biodiversity information (http://chm.moew.government.bg).
The Budget, Finance and Economic Activity Directorate is responsible, inter alia, for the IT servicing of the Ministry of environment and water’s staff. This includes planning of necessary resources, implementation of IT related policies and support for specialized databases that the Ministry is mandated to maintain.
The Executive Environment Agency (ExEA) is the administration reporting to the Minister of environment and water which is responsible for performing leading, coordinative and informative functions regarding the control and protection of environment in Bulgaria. The Agency designs and manages the “National System for Environment Monitoring and Information on the State of the Environment’s Factors and Components”, for the country’s whole territory. The ExEA organizes and maintains the National System for Monitoring of Biodiversity (NSMB), respectively database and information system for biodiversity and register of the protected areas (http://eea.government.bg/zpo/index.jsp). Within the range of NSMB are established specialized schemes for monitoring of the protected areas. ExEA reports annually to the European Environment Agency (EEA) for the Central Database of Designated Areas (CDDA, http://www.eionet.europa.eu/dataflows/pdf2008/flow_summary?flow=CDDA1), which contains information about the protected areas by IUCN codes, boundaries, surfaces, etc.
3.1.2. The context in the beneficiary country (BC) and linked activities
While the leading responsibility for implementing the INSPIRE Directive in Bulgaria is at present with the National Public Information Agency, the Ministry of Environment and Water is responsible for assuring adequate implementation the environment-related themes under the Directive, and has already reported all spatial data held in relation to the INSPIRE Directive.
Since Annex I.9 “Protected Areas” is the first environment-theme to be implemented under its exclusive competence, the Ministry of Environment and Water has prepared detailed instructions for “the specialized map and the register of protected areas”. These will be published and jointly enacted as a Regulation by the Ministers of Environment and Water, and Regional Development.
Since the exercise of compiling metadata is new for MoEW,the proposed project will contribute to creating institutional capacity that will be helpful for handling metadata in other areas of environment protection, thus creating additional synergies.
3.1.3. The proposed methodology for implementing the intended reform
While the above mentioned set of regulative arrangements will assure the compliance of Bulgaria with the INSPIRE Directive for Annex I.9 Protected Areas, exchange of experience with an experienced Member State institution and the adopted approach of close collaboration with the Joint Research Center of the European Commission will be required for their technically efficient and timely implementation.
Within the range of project two working groups will be established, one of MS experts and another with experts of all institution involved with the protected areas and related databases – MoEW, ExEA, State Forestry Agency (SFA), SAITC. This group, under the direction of NNPS at MoEW, will work in close collaboration with experts of the Member State twinning partner.
Within the planned activities in item 3.3.1 the practices and experience related to structuring and completing the set of metadata for protected areas will be exchanged.
Both expert groups will discuss possible approaches for restructuring of environment databases, which have relation to the Directive, possible problems etc. It is expected that as a result, a proposal will be made on a practical, realistic approach and schedule for preparation of metadata for protected areas in necessary amount and format, taking into account the conditions in the country, available registers in NNPS and ExEA, financial and time aspect.
The planned direct communication and exchange between the two teams, including the JRC support, which is the authorized authority at European level for enforcing of the INSPIRE directive, will allow within the range of activities in item 3.3.2. to accomplish the preliminary preparation and structuring of metadata for the Protected areas according to the INSPIRE requirements, including:
- Review of requirements of INSPIRE directive and realistic plan for its enforcement in respect to the protected areas
- Review of information available in MoEW and other information necessary for NNPS and providing it for the disposal of NNPS in due time.
- Collecting and completing the information in format and substance according to the Directive requirements
- Filling the Protocols for protected areas’ metadata according to INSPIRE requirements
As part of the project is foreseen an exchange of good practices with JRC and thus the capacity of Bulgarian experts in relation to the maintenance and update of databases will be enhanced. The knowledge gathered by beneficiaries and the technical work which will be carried out in the course of project implementation will allow the beneficiaries – NNPS, BFEA and ExEA - to submit in time the necessary set of metadata according to Annex 1.9 in the scope and content as required by the directive for the around 860 protected areas in Bulgaria, which will be a substantial co-operative work for the Bulgarian Beneficiaries and their Member State partners.
3.1.4. Steering Committee
The project is to be implemented under the direct control and supervision of a Steering Committee. The Steering Committee will monitor, supervise and coordinate the overall progress and implementation of the project activities.
The Committee will be chaired by the MS and BC Project Leaders, and comprise representatives of the Beneficiary institutions in the environment sector, as well as of the leading institution for overall implementation of the INSPIRE Directive in Bulgaria (at present the National Public Information Agency).
The following Steering Committee meetings shall be held during the project implementation
§ Kick-off Meeting at the project’s start.
§ Steering Committee during the 3rd month to discuss and approve the start-up report
§ Final Steering Committee to discuss and approve the final report.
Also in case of force major situations or realization of risks/other significant difficulties in the management of the project, exceptional Steering Committee meetings will be held.
3.1.5 BC Project Leader
SPO
Ivelina Vasileva
Deputy Minister
22, M. Luisa blvd., 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
tel. +359 2 940 61 81 fax: +359 2 980 96 11
Deputy SPO
Plamen Glogov
Director of Implementation on Phare programme directorate
Tel.: (359 2) 940 62 66
Fax: (359 2) 981 66 10
e-mail:
Project Leader
Valeri Valchinkov
Chief expert
Nature Protection Directorate
Ministry of Environment and Water
1000 Sofia, Maria Luisa Bd 22
Tel.: +359 2 940 66 74
Fax: +359 2 981 6610; +359 2 980 9641
e-mail:
The Bulgarian Project Leader shall direct the implementation of the project and shall be responsible for the substance and the progress of the project.
Krasimir Stoytchev
Head of Sector
IT Services
Ministry of Environment and Water
1000 Sofia, Maria Luisa Bd 22
Tel: +359 889 228156
e-mail:
He is responsible for the IT-technical co-ordination of INSPIRE implementation within the Ministry of Environment and Water, and will contribute to the project through defining the respective IT-technical solutions in dialogue with the Twinning partner experts.
BC Project implementation manager
Bilyana Ivanova
State Expert, Monitoring and Control Department
Implementation of PHARE Program directorate
Ministry of Environment and Water
1000 Sofia, Gladstone str. 67
Phone : +359 2 940 6323
Fax: +359 2 981 6610
e-mail:
She will work on a day-to day basis with the MS and BC PLs on project management and reporting issues related to the twinning implementation
Executive Environment Agency
Ivanka Todorova
Head of Land, Biodiversity and Protected Areas Monitoring Unit
Phone : +359 2 940 6480
Fax: +359 2 955 90 15
e-mail:
She will co-ordinate the participation of Executive Environment Agency experts in the implementation of the project.
3.2 Global and specific objectives
Global objective
The wider objective of the present project is to assure adequate and timely implementation of Directive 2007/2/EC (“INSPIRE”) in the environment sector in Bulgaria.
Specific objective:
On the basis of sharing experience with Bulgaria from the implementation experience in other EU Member States
· Elaborate and agree between the responsible institutions a realistic work-plan for implementing the Inspire Directive for Annex I “Protected Areas” and the further environment-related themes in Bulgaria
· Assure a good-quality and timely metadata inventory for the first relevant environment-related theme Annex I “Protected Areas” for Bulgaria
· Assure good technical co-operation on the environment-related Inspire themes between the Bulgarian Environment administration and the Joint Research Center of the European Commission
3.3 Requested services / nature of activities
In order to achieve the Project Results, the following activities are envisaged:
3.3.1. Establish and agree a workplan for implementing the environment-related themes of the INSPIRE Directive
A 1.1. Review Member State experience and organisation practice from at least two Member States with advanced technical and organisational infrastructure for implementing the environment-related themes of the INSPIRE Directive. The review will include both the institutional and IT-technical aspects of the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive Annexes at the national level. The environment-related themes are covered mostly by Annex III, as well as in Annex I.8 (Hydrography) and Annex I.9 (Protected Areas).
A 1.2. Elaborate a realistic short- and long-term workplan for implementing the environment-related themes for Bulgaria.
A 1.3 Agree the elaborated work-plan at executive level of the Bulgarian Environment administration (including allocation of resources) and in inter-institutional co-ordination with the leading implementing institution for the Inspire Directive in Bulgaria. The Ministry of Environment and Water and the Executive Environment Agency will co-operate for this purpose with the State Agency of Information Technology and Communication (SAITC) and the national working group for implementation of the INSPIRE Directive which has been formed under the co-ordination of SAITC.
Expected MS input
Expert advice and joint drafting work; joint presentation of workplan at executive levels; preparation of documentation of Member State experience:
Detailed report including results from joint work, expert advice and documentation of Member State experience, work plan;
1 workshop for joint presentation of workplan at executive levels;
2 experts X 5 visits X 5 days - 50 man-days.
3.3.2. Provide Bulgarian Metadata Inventory for Annex I “Protected Areas”
A 2.1. Review INSPIRE metadata requirements and current status of available metadata on protected areas in Bulgaria;
A 2.2 Establish a work-plan for assembling the required metadata in the required INSPIRE format;
A 2.3. Implement the work-plan in time to prepare and review the Bulgarian metadata delivery for around 860 protected areas to EC in 2010.
Expected MS input
Detailed report including results from joint work, Expert advice; joint review of existing metadata, elaboration of workplan and creation of meta-data in the required formats: 3 experts X 7 visits X 5 days - 105 man-days.
3.3.3. Assure technical co-operation with EC Joint Research Center
A 3.1 Share Member State Practice in co-operation with JRC – Organisational, technical and IT implementation aspects. The Member State experts visiting Bulgaria will also assist the Bulgarian colleagues in preparing a substantial and consolidated set of technical questions which are to clarified during the Working Visit to JRC under A 3.2
A 3.2 Bulgarian Working Visit to JRC – scheduled shortly after the start of the metadata collection exercise for annex 1.9 (Protected Areas), in order to discuss the concepts for implementation in Bulgaria and clarify arising operational questions. The Bulgarian expert team visiting JRC will provide a detailed report on the discussions and the implementation of lessons learned during the ongoing metadata collection and delivery exercise.