Environment for Europe Conference

WECF participated in the first preparatory meeting of the Environment for Europe Conference, Belgrade 2007

26.10.2005 |Victoria Elias, Eco-Accord

Preparations for the next Environment for Europe, Conference of Environmental Ministers of the European region

The next Environment for Europe Conference will be held in the 1 or 2 week of October 2007, in Belgrad, Serbia-Montenegro.

A firs preparatory meeting was held in Geneva where WECF as part of the European Eco-Forum Coordination Board was present.

To download the proposals made by European Eco-Forum for the main themes of the Belgrade conference, go to their website

The Working Group of Senior Officials (WGSO) held its 1st session in Geneva, 12-13 October.

Article by Victoria Elias, Eco-Accord Moscow

European ECO-Forum was represented by

Mara Silina, EEB, PPCC Coordinator,
John Hontelez, EEB, PPCC Chair, Olga Ponizova, ECO-Accord, EAP Issue Group Coordinator,
Marie Kranendonk, WECF (on behalf of Sascha Gabizon, WECF, E&H Issue Group Coordinator)
Yusup Kamalov, UDASA, PPCC member
Victoria Elias, ECO-Accord, CB Chair and Education Issue Group Coordinator

Mr. Miroslav Spasojevic, Ministry of Science and Environment protection of Serbia, was elected as a Chair of the WGSO.

After the adoption of the agenda Monika Linn (Team Leader for EfE in the UNECE Secretariat) made a brief review on Kiev-2003 decisions and preparations to Belgrade.

The following issues were proposed by the CEP already:

Belgrade SoE report
Review of EECCA Env. Strategy implementation
Special segment on ESD and UNECE ESD Strategy implementation (together with Ministers of Education)
Addressing sustainable production and consumption issue (SPAC) – now clear yet in which format
Energy and progress report on energy efficiency initiative
Experience of the 2nd round of EPRs
UNECE Conventions, their coordination and implementation
Closer links to other int. processes (in particular Environment and Health and Forests)

Further to that organizational arrangement of the Execom was presented by the Chair. He referred to the WGSP document on ToR and announced which countries will be invited to Execom, then he also referred to observers (those are CEP Chair, PEBLDS Bureau Chair, EAP TF rep, EU presidency, European Commission rep, ECO-Forum and one rep from RECs (they tried to request more: 1 from old rEC and one from EECCA, but this did not work).

Right after this Chair asked observers to say some words. This was a bit confusing and we first said that we are happy to be in Execom and will also further present our proposals. Then other observers continued and they have presented quite long papers on their preparations to Belgrade. F. ex. EEA presented a proposed structure of the Belgrade SoE report (that will include not only SoE data, but also information on policies implementation. The report will contain data on EU according to EEA indicators and on EECCA and SEE according to other indicators based on EECCA Env Strategy and REReP. This is not 100% clear yet how compatible will be the data in this case. However, they already started work. Earlier at CEP they also said that there will be consultations with stakeholders, but NGOs were not mentioned. We raised this issue and further agreed bilaterally that will look for a way, probably using Internet forum or help of UNEP for a meeting).

Further to EEA, EAP TF presented the Almaty+5 process (reforms of water and sanitation municipal systems in EECCA) and mentioned that Erevan Ministerial Meeting (November 2005) will contribute to Belgrade preparations. They also stressed the need to review the EECA Strategy implementation in Belgrade.
PPC reported on their activities and said that in addition to 5 existing staff (3 in EECCA, 2 in London), they will have 2 more: 1 in Central Asia and 1 in Washington.
Energy Charter Secretariat reported that they do not cover all UNECE members but will be ready to report in Belgrade.

Here we were a bit concerned that we should probably also present ECO-Forum proposals and Victoria asked the Chair whether it is a right time to do so or it should be done later. The Chair said we should go ahead.
So we have presented the ECO-Forum proposals (attached paper).
PEBLDS supported our suggestion on biodiversity and stressed the importance of this issue and also supported our proposal on the roundtable with Ministers on this issue (also adequate time allocation).

After this is was a break announced (and some countries were not very happy that they have not presented their ideas before the organisations).

After the break the Netherlands got the floor and said that was inspired by ECO-Forum presentation, then also said that it is a right time for SPAC issue on EfE agenda. NL also highlighted importance of energy issues on agenda.

Norway referred to EU intervention at the CEP session, when it was said that EU is committed to continue its involvement in EfE (they will be 27 members of 55 UNECE by the time of Belgrade). Norway brought issues of Poverty, further development of Monitoring, EECCA Strategy, Education for SD (but referred to it as to Env Education), said that SPAC is a difficult theme but may be Eco-efficiency would be a solution, supported Biodiversity. They also stressed the need to have closer links with E&H process and look at water –borne diseases, air pollution, climate change and energy (all latter from the health angle) .

Then UK was speaking on behalf of the EU. They reconfirmed their commitment to EfE and said that they will work on a paper on implementation of previous agreements (independent report would be a good solution in EU’s view). They suggested that this should be a basis for 2,5 days discussion. No new legally binding documents (“no need in additional instruments”) should be signed in Belgrade according to UK. They suggested to link discussions with those at global level, such as MDG, WSSD POI, etc. Interesting is that they remembered the Sofia-95 Env Programme for Europe (that we have stressed in our paper). UK also stressed that there is a need to put focus on environmental issues, not SD, develop subregional initiatives and give preference to such tools as soft law doc’s and recommendations). Belgrade Ministerial should become a “Conference of delivery”.

Other countries stressed some particular issues further, while most agreed that implementation is a key approach.

Latvia supported ECO-Forum proposal on new policy on Chemicals, Hungary stressed Biodiversity and also called for a specific focus on Balkan countries. Czech Rep said that we need to think how to continue EfE after Belgrade and have small but attractive topics, in particular stressed, ESD (including education for official and private sector), Energy (and the fact that energy resources are in EECCA). Cz also call =ed for better links with CSD cycle.

Sweden stressed ESD and said that there should be a special segment or back-to-back Ministerial meeting. Decision will be taken at the December 2005 Regional Steering Committee mtg on ESD. They als suggested first to listen to all ideas and then decide on topics for the conference (probably next WGSO). On SPAC in particular they said that it is a difficult issue, we need to try to narrow down it and find what will be deliverables (cleaner production, etc.) Agriculture may be an interesting issue to tackle.

USA supported EU in general, then questioned ESD and SPAC as well as Biodiversity, but then supported the need to review Leaded petrol phase out. They also said that water issues should be on agenda (quality and quantity).

Russia also supported the need to review implementation and then raised particular themes of water recourses (management of), air pollution, biodiversity, monitoring, ESD, transboundary issues. Russia said that there should not be a long negotiating process on the outcoming documents (actually – no Ministerial declaration).

IUCN stressed Biodiversity (also to include this to EPR!) and criticized USA, called them to ratify CBD by Belgrade.USA immediately attacked IUCN…

UN CCD (Convention to Combat Desertification) expressed interest to further cooperate with EfE and to address issues of environmental and economic consequences of land degradation.

Turkey stressed Energy issues.

Belarus mentioned ESD, Biodiversity, Chemicals, GMOs and called for attention to Conventions implementation.

Chair summarized the discussion in several main points:

Need to assess what has been done in EfE
Need of Independent report on EfE decisions implementation
Possibility to have thematic reports to Belgrade on specific issues
Request to focus on specific region (f.ex South-East Europe/Balkans)
Conventions
All proposals (may be in more detailed format) to be sent in written form to the Secretariat by 1 December.

There was also a report on host country preparations (will be in video format at the next WGSO as well).
Important note to us is that there is no federal Ministry of Environment in Serbia and Montenegro, so there are 2 of them (one in Serbia and one in Montenegro) involved. Therefore the Council of Ministers of the S&M Union establishe a State Board on preparations to the EfE conference. It consists of President, Vice-President, 17 members from different Ministries and also includes 3 NGO representatives (I have further consulted with the Chair of NGOs involved and got their contacts).

The conference will be on 1 or 2 week of October 2007.

EXECOM establishment
Following countries are members:
Hungary – Aloisa Lacosh
Italy – Massimo Cozzone
Sweden – Jon Kahn
Switzerland – Jorg Schneider
USA – Chuck Ashley
Russia –person t.b.c.
Kyrgyzstan - person t.b.c.
S&M – Chair, Miroslav Spasojevic

ECO-Forum is among the observers (Victoria Elias).
RECs got one place and said that they will rotate depending on the theme. For the time being it is Bulat Essekin of CAREC.
EU presidency is currently represented by UK.
European Commission did not clearly mention the person as wel as EAP TF, PEBLDS – by the Chair (Norway)

One more WGSO issue (passed by CEP to WGSO) was a Communication Strategy. But this was delegated to Execom.

Next meeting of the WGSO will be in June 2006 (1st week).

FIRST MEETING OF EXECOM
The meeting took place after the WGSO. This was an organizational one. Some exchange of views on the necessity to “digest” what was presented at the WGSO.
All further proposals will be sent to the Secretariat by 1 December. Then next Execom meeting on 28 February (most probably in Belgrade) will discuss them and recommend some further actions to prepare for WGSO-2.

CAREC volunteered to prepare a table with analysis of priorities of previous EfE conferences. Chair requested this to ne a 1-page document.
Hungary tried to clarify when will be deadlines to submit papers to Belgrade Conference, Chair mentioned deadline of 10 weeks before the meeting. Somehow Secretariat was not really ready to explain the procedure (as it was for ex. presented in a special table before Kiev for different categories of documents.) After some discussion ECO-Forum suggested to ask the Secretariat for the same table. This was supported.

On Communication Strategy. Chair did not want to touch this issue at all at the 1st meeting. He replied to the ECO-Forum request that this will be dealt with in February.
Then USA raised the issue again at the end (I suppose that the consultant for the paper- who was at the CEP session- also requested them and he is from the US). Finally it was agreed that all possible comments to a current paper on Communication Strategy should be sent to the Secretariat by January 2006. Then the issue will be dealt with at the 2nd Execom meeting.

Download the WGSO Report.