The QUASIMEME project from a European union viewpoint

A prerequisite of sound decision-making on contaminant levels in the marine environment is the provision of accurate data by analytical chemists. Any disagreement between analytical laboratories will make it difficult for organizations using these data to establish trends in time and space and to assess whether environmental levels of contaminants are complying with current legislation. Marine monitoring represents a difficult sector of international co-operative effort; since the strategies adopted by laboratories can differ from one country to another, the relevant EC Directives do not explicitly impose the use of defined methodologies and existing EC standards are not clearly adapted to the purpose of marine monitoring. In order to improve this situation, the QUASIMEME project was initiated, as described in this special issue, and selected for funding by the EC Measurements and Testing (M&T) programme. This paper describes the aim of the M&T programme, the preliminary discussions leading to the preparation of the QUASIMEME project, the selection procedure for EC sponsored projects and the project outcome from an EC viewpoint.