Τhe Greek GEO Office, in collaboration with the International GEO Office, the Mariolopoulos-Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences and the National Athens Observatory, organized an exceptionally important Symposium aimed to explore the cooperation potential among countries of South-Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean.
For this purpose, named invitations were extended to two representatives from each country, a scientist directing a National Centre of Environmental Research and a politician at the level of Ministry Director-General, so that they could present the situation in their countries as it regards to the topic of Earth Observation and discuss the possibility of a more general and more permanent collaboration on this issue. The symposium lasted three days, June 8-10, 2009, in the central building of Athens University and in the “Kostis Palamas” building. Eleven (11) countries participated in it: Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Hungary, Moldova, Slovenia, Cyprus, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, and of course Greece. At the same time, the General Secretariat of the GEO International Office, headed by the Director General of the Office, Professor Jose Achaché and representatives of the European Organizations ESA, GMES, EOE and EU. (Proceedings of the GEO South – Eastern Europe and Eastern Mediterranean Symposium on “Earth Observation Services for Monitoring the Environment and Protecting the General Public”, 2009)
