The chairman opened the meeting and welcomed the participants. Apologi es were received from Emmanuel Frossard, Austin Morgan, Jose Torrent and Brian Kronvang. It was with sadness that delegates had learned of the death of Eric Sibbesen, a MC member from Denmark. It was agreed to take items 3 and 5 together and the Agenda was approved.

 The Minutes were approved.

 This item was taken as part of item 5.

 Paul J.A. Withers (UK) and Wim J. Chardon (NL) were re-elected as chairman and vice-chairman, respectively.

Further to the meetings of the working group (WG) meetings in Belfast in June 1998, the following future programmes of work and their respective organisers were agreed:

It was decided to have a 3-day joint meeting with WG 2 in Cordoba, Spain on 13-15 May 1999. A small organisational meeting in Gembloux in October 1998 had produced a draft programme with emphasis on reviewing fertiliser/manure recommendation systems, soil processes influencing the fate of P amendments, methodologies for calculating P balances at a range of scales and soil test methods for agronomic and environmental purposes. It was suggested that data should be evaluated with respect to the different types of farming systems within the EU. These reviews would then form the basis for a further meeting of WG1 in either autumn 1999 or spring 2000. One area which was not adequately represented in WG1 was that of P in feeds and it was agreed that a workshop on feed P inputs and their relationship to P balance in different livestock farming systems should be organised for autumn 1999. The Chairman of COST 832 agreed to organise this.

WG2 would meet with WG1 in Cordoba in spring 1999 and a small organisational meeting in Brussels on the 19 November 1998 had finalised a draft programme on soil processes affecting P loss at the field scale. The concepts, definitions and terminology of P loss from soil and the amounts and processes of solubilization and erosion of soil P would be reviewed. It was decided that a two further meetings of WG2 should be organised for autumn 1999 in Austria; one to evaluate field scale models for prediction of P loss through erosion and surface run-off and the other to evaluate field scale models for prediction of P loss through solubilization (leaching) by different hydrological pathways. These two groups would meet separately but at the same time and location.

The meeting in Belfast had concluded that four main topic areas should be investigated by separate working group meetings: methodologies for determining P loss derived from agriculture, empirical modelling of dissolved and particulate P loss in rural catchments, identification of sources and sinks of P within catchments and methodologies for the identification and assessment of the potential effectiveness of management strategies to control P loss. Two WG meetings were planned for 1999; one in summer in Berlin and one in autumn 1999 in either Cambridge or Dublin. Small meetings to organise these WG meetings had yet to be arranged.

As there were only 11 participants in WG4 in Belfast, the Chairman urged MC members to identify appropiate national delegates to attend future meetings. A preliminary action plan for WG4 drawn up in Belfast was discussed further and it was decided there should be 4 topics for future working group meetings: fate and cycling of P in different types of waters, bioavailability of the different dissolved and particulate P forms lost from agricultural land, biotic response/bioindicators of diffuse P inputs/impacts in different types of water and most importantly identification of critical targets for eutrophication control. Two WG meetings would be held in 1999; one in summer 1999 in Aberdeen and one in Helsinki in autumn 1999. Small meetings to organise the programme had yet to be arranged.

A summary of planned WG meetings within COST 832 is given in Appendix 1.

In addition to soil profile, field and catchment data available for reviewing by WG members, it was decided that the Chairman would approach COST to fund an ‘information search’ of Pan-European datasets which could be used to identify current eutrophied waters and assess their potential use for predicting the risk of P loss within different COST countries.

It was decided that the annual report of COST 832 should include a two-page executive summary of COST 832 activities in 1998, minutes of MCM meetings in 1997 and 1998, the reports of each of the working group (WG) meetings held in Belfast together with appendices of current MCM members and attendees at Belfast. Hannes Schuepp, the COST Secretariat, reminded delegates that there would be a mid-term review of the Action undertaken by the appropiate COST technical committee.

Everyone agreed that the web-site was a very useful way of promoting the existence of COST 832, the information generated by the Action and providing access to COST members. A vote of thanks was extended to Wim Chardon and Oscar Schoumans for their efforts in organising and updating the web site. Wim Chardon agreed to investigate how the path could be improved for people searching the web.

The chairman reported that only two applications for short-term missions had been received in 1998 and urged members to encourage more applications in 1999. Guidelines on filling in the application form, and the criteria on which applications were judged, were available from the chairman or the COST secretary, Hannes Schuepp. Up to 7 applications were allowed each year.

It was decided that there should be two MCM meetings in 1999, of which one would be linked with a WG meeting or a workshop, and the other to be held in November 1999 to review annual progress and decide on an Action plan for 2000.

Hannes Schuepp outlined some changes in the organisation of the COST system and details of the activities/actions/programmes of R&D which had been allocated funding within the EU Fifth Framework. The two programmes ‘Quality of life, management of living resources’ and ‘Preserving the ecosystem’ were directly relevant to COST 832. Approximately, 2-3 billion ECU had each been allocated to these two programmes with calls for proposals as early as January. COST 832 should provide a good platform for submission of proposals.

A warm vote of thanks was extended to Hannes Schuepp for his help and co-ordination of COST 832 since he would be retiring as the COST secretariat in August 1999.