In its second meeting the MSC discussed the future of the MAP supportive structures, the Programme Office (PO) and the MAP Data Centre (MDC) beyond 2002, as the EUMETNET (EMN) funding through the programme MAP-NWS will have ended by then. The MSC emphasized that a continuation of the MDC beyond 2002 for at least three years is absolutely essential at this point of the Evaluation Phase. The PO and the EMN Coordination Officer Claude Pastre submitted a request for a MAP-NWS follow-on programme for the period 2003 to 2005 on a lower funding level covering the expenses for 1person unit (PU) at the MDC and 0.2 PU at the PO. Formally it is an extension to the original MAP-NWS Contract. Apart from the continuation of the services as is, the most important point of the follow-on programme is the transfer of the MDC to an operational institution by the end of 2005 in order to guarantee permanent access to the MAP data sets.
In its April 2002 meeting the EUMETNET Council agreed upon the MAP-NWS follow-on programme.
The UK joined MAP-NWS to become a formal member after having informally contributed since 1995.
The financial contributions to cover the proposed budget of about 100kEuro/ yr are being negotiated
at present and need to be defined for the December Council Meeting.
