At its sixth session (Rome, 28–30 November 2012), the Meeting of the Parties to the Convention mandated the Working Group on IWRM, in consultation with the Implementation Committee, to carry out an analysis of the needs for reporting under the Convention, taking into account the capacity of countries and other relevant reporting mechanisms. Such an analysis will serve as the basis for the possible elaboration of the scope and modalities of a reporting mechanism to be submitted for consideration and possible adoption by the Meeting of the Parties at its seventh session.
The Working Group on IWRM established a Core Group on Reporting to prepare a proposal for such a possible mechanism, whose first meeting took place on 15-16 2014 December in Geneva. For the first meeting of the Core Group, Fresh-Thoughts supported the UNECE by preparing a background document. The document included an overview of existing reporting requirements that relate to the obligations of the Water Convention and topics covered by it, in particular, those under the different relevant water-related EU directives (including EEA reporting) and other related multilateral environmental agreements (other UNECE MEAs, Ramsar Convention, etc.), EUROSTAT, as well as for river basin commissions, e.g. ICPDR. The report also broadly outlined some suggestions on what a possible reporting mechanism under the Water Convention might look like, based on the replies to a questionnaire and the comments made at the ninth meeting of the Working Group on IWRM.