Folia Geobot. Phytotax. 32: 113-115, 1997 EUROPEAN VEGETATION SURVEY: THE CONTEXT OF THE CASE STUDIES John S. Rodweil 1), Ladislav Mucina 2), Sandro Pignatti 3), Joop H. J. Schamin~e 4) & Milan Chytr# 5) 1) Unit of Vegetation Science, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, United Kingdom; fax +44 1524 843854, E-mail m.needham@ lancaster.ac.uk 2) Department of Plant Chorology and Vegetation Science, Institute of Botany, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, A-1030 Wien, Austria; Present address: Department of Botany, University of Pretoria, 0002 Pretoria, Republic of South Africa;fax +27 12 43 2184, E-mail mucina@scientia.up.ac.za 3) Department of Vegetation Biology, University of Rome "La Sapienza ", P.le A. Moro 5, 1-00185 Rome, Italy; fax +39 6 4463865, E-mail pignatti@axrma.uniromal.it 4) Institute for Forestry and Nature Research - DLO, P. B. 23, NL-6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands; fax +31 317 424988, E-mail j.h.j.schaminee@ ibn.dlo.nl 5) Department of Systematic Botany and Geobotany, Masaryk University, Kotld[sk6 2, CZ-611 37 Brno; fax +420 5 41211214, E-mail chytry@sci.muni.cz Keywords: CORINE/Palaearctic habitats classification, Darwin Initiative, Habitats Directive, International Association for Vegetation Science, Phytosociology,TURBO(VEG) Since 1992, a group of phytosociologists has met each spring in Rome to encourage the development of an overview of the vegetation of Europe. Constituted as an official working group of the International Association for Vegetation Science, the European Vegetation Survey represents a new spirit in phytosociology (PIGNATT11990, 1995). At the beginning this initiative was strongly supported by a small group of phytosociologists that were carrying out national vegetation survey programmes in Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK (GRABHERR & MUCINA 1993, MUCINAet al. 1993a, 1993b, RODWELL1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, SCHAMINI~E et al. 1995a, 1995b, 1996). The realm of interest of the European Vegetation Survey is wider Europe, including eastern Europe, the Aegean and Canary Islands, Iceland and Svalbard, and its aims are to promulgate common data standards in phytosociology, to support national vegetation survey programmes and to develop compatible software and an electronic network for data exchange. Summaries of progress in this enterprise have been published from time to time (MuCINA et al. 1993c, PIGNATTI 1995, RODWELLet al. 1995). An early result of a new national programme was the publication of the first volume of the Slovak national vegetation classification (VALACHOVI~ et al. 1995). The Rome workshops themselves provide a forum for regular updates on developments across Europe, an exchange of views on important research programmes and concepts in phytosociology and an opportunity for newcomers to vegetation surveying to receive a welcome and encouragement for their work. In this sense there is a social and political aspect to the meetings, the wider implications of which have already been considerable. Two examples