The 1st VISIBILITY EVENT was held on 30 June 2015 at the European Union Info Centre in Podgorica. The aim of the visibility event was to present the concept of the Environmental Information System i.e. its functionality, main features, and how the EIS will support the Government of Montenegro to improve the decision making process by providing the Montenegrin environment authorities with sound, reliable environmental data.

THE CONCEPT OF EIS

The objective of this project is to develop an Environmental Information System (EIS) capable of supporting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Montenegro in its mission to provide accurate, reliable and timely environmental information to policy-makers and the public.

The EPA, which was established in 2008, is in charge of monitoring the environment, analysing the collected data and preparing the related reports required nationally and by the European Environment Information and Observation Network (EIONET) and other international organisations.

Current business processes will be re-engineered so that the network of information providers will in the future make their environmental data available to the EPA via a web-enabled EIS, thus creating a decentralized and integrated system. The quality, availability and accessibility of environmental information will be improved as a result.


THE OBJECTIVES

The EIS will follow the structure of environmental topics put forward by European Environment Information and Observation Network (EIONET): Air pollution, Chemicals/ Waste, Biodiversity change and nature, Climate change, Soil, Water, Air Quality.

Additionally, through the presentation of the national environmental indicators, the EIS will cover: Sea, Waste management, Agriculture, Fishery and sectoral pressures on environment which include energy, traffic and tourism.


TARGET USER GROUPS

The target user groups of the Environmental Information System (EIS) will be as follows:

• The Environmental Protection Agency of Montenegro;
• The broader user-base at the Ministry of Sustainable Development & Tourism;
• Agencies and Institutions that gather environmental data;
• Ministries and institutions that need access to validated environmental data;
• Private or public organisations that are obliged according to Montenegrin law to submit environmental data;
• Wider Public: citizens, business, academia, media and NGOs;