ECMWF Copernicus Workshop

Virtual | 11-12 June 2020

Workshop description

ECMWF is operating two Copernicus Services on behalf of the European Union: the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service and the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

From the start, ECMWF has been strongly involved in the development of Copernicus information services. It coordinated the pilot atmosphere service (MACC-II) and a precursor of the climate change service (ERA-CLIM2). ECMWF also contributes to the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) and collaborates with other Copernicus Services.

These services are developed and operated in a way that complements the established range of meteorological and environmental services that are operated nationally. The strong involvement of current service providers and key representatives from the relevant academic communities ensures the Copernicus services can benefit most fully from existing infrastructure and knowledge. It also ensures that the services are implemented in a manner consistent with the EU principles of complementarity and subsidiarity.

The current Delegation Agreement with the European Union will expire at the end of 2020, with the provision to operate critical elements of both services until mid 2021.

Over the last two years, ECMWF has started discussions with the European Commission and other Entrusted Entities about the framework and content for the evolution of the services. Proposed continued and new service elements have been presented in several occasions (e.g. ECMWF Council and Committees in 2018, Copernicus events in Brussels, EGU session 2019, ..).

At the time when negotiations are ongoing with the European Commission and the technical specifications of the components of the two services are being defined for the next seven years, it was deemed important to update ECMWF Member States and Cooperating States on the current State-of-Play of these negotiations and gather feedback from the community on the envisaged Services evolution.

In order to keep the workshop and discussions manageable, Member States and Cooperating States were invited to propose up to three delegates representing the breadth of Environmental Services of their country. In addition, ECMWF invited experts representing important stakeholders (other Copernicus services, EU relevant DGs, EEA, etc.) who usefully contributed to the discussions and improved the C3S and CAMS offer.

The workshop took place remotely on 11 and 12 June 2020 and comprised of three half-day sessions, starting 11 June afternoon (13:00 BST).