Euro-Mediterranean Information System on know-how in the Water sector

EMWIS has a two-tier structure. At decision-making level, there is a Steering Committee and a Coordination Committee, and at operational level are a number of National Focal Points (NFPs), grouped together under a central Technical Unit. EMWIS is directed by a restricted Steering Committee of 13 countries (with rotating rules). It formulates the main strategic lines and validates yearly budgets and progress reports. Currently under Italian Presidency and Lebanese and Moroccan Vice-Presidency, it is made up of the Technical Unit's sponsor countries (Spain, France and Italy), plus Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Turkey, and the Palestinian Authority. The Coordination Committee Comprising representatives from the Technical Unit and all the National Focal Points, the coordination committee’s tasks include drawing up the annual activity programmes and proposing the annual budget. The National Focal Points National Focal Points (NFPs) are small teams working in a public organisation responsible for water-related documentation and information. Their tasks consist in creating and developing a national information server; organising communication processes and access to vetted information; ensuring information availability in the working languages; developing access to the information and maintaining relations with the users in their country. To date, 20 of the 37 partner countries have created a NFP, and 16 of them have launched their own website. The Technical Unit The Technical Unit is a permanent body managed and financed by a group of water operators acting on behalf of their governments: CEDEX (Spain), Office International de l’Eau (France) and SOGESID (Italy). Its major roles are to: coordinate and provide assistance and recommendations to the National Focal Points support the activities of the Steering and Coordination Committees act as the International Focal Point. In this role, it is responsible for collecting data on institutions, for documentation, training, research and development and data management at international level (relevant for the Euro-Mediterranean region). It manages the EMWIS information portal, acting as a single access point for inland water in the Euro-Mediterranean region, and providing access to international information and NFP websites. It also works towards reaching agreements with international initiatives and projects. Budget is issued from the European Commission, France, Spain & Italy, Partners all the 43 Euromed countries (ministries in charge of water), projects, exchange of know how, seminars..