Towards the fifth ministerial conference “environment and health” (Parma 2010)
Paris meeting discusses the ministerial declaration. On 3-4 December 2008, France hosted a meeting of the European Environment and Health Committee (EEHC) and the second meeting on the draft ministerial declaration for the Fifth Ministerial Conference “Environment and Health”.
19.12.2008 |Sascha Gabizon
The EEHC agreed on the dates of the Fifth Ministerial Conference. The conference will take place in Parma, Italy, in late February or early March 2010.
The main committal document of the Fifth Ministerial Conference will be the Ministerial Declaration. There will be a Strategy on climate change and health developed for the conference as well. It may be a separate committal document, or may stay as a policy brief and be referred to in the declaration and form an annex to the declaration. The European ECO Forum supported having the Strategy as a committal document. It is important that the Strategy focuses on mitigation measures that could be implemented by the health sector, in addition to adaptation to climate change.
The EEHC meeting also discussed the preliminary programme of the Fifth Ministerial Conference. It includes a session on working with stakeholders which would highlight NGO work. The European ECO Forum and the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) requested the possibility to organise an NGO-Ministers round table on implementation of the Children's Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe (CEHAPE), and to organise a second edition of the CEHAPE Best Practice Awards.
The EEHC meeting was followed by the Second drafting group for the Ministerial Declaration. The drafting group included the representatives of Norway (health), Denmark (both health and environment), UK (health), Austria (environment), Croatia (health), Moldova (health), Armenia (health), Serbia (health), Italy (both environment and health), Hungary (health), Belgium (health and environment), the Netherlands (environment), Finland (both health and environment), Turkey (health), Andorra (health), France (both health and environment), Germany (both health and environment), DG Sanco, WBCSD, REC, European ECO Forum, HEAL, youth, and trade-unions. The meeting was chaired by Leen Meulenbergs (Belgium) with support from Nune Bakunts (Armenia).
The group agreed on a revised structure for the Declaration and confirmed the need to keep it short, focused and action-oriented. Most of the discussion focused on specific actions, particularly with regard to the CEHAPE. The meeting discussed in detail the text of all paragraphs with relation to CEHAPE Regional Priority Goals (RPGs). Denmark was very strong in pressing to include nanotechnology, endocrine disruptors, chemicals cocktail as new or emerging issues. The inclusion of endocrine disruptors was opposed by Finland. The European ECO Forum raised the issue of asbestos as requiring action under RPG IV. With support of Belgium and a wording proposed by Serbia this issue got into the text. Human bio monitoring was included by Belgium as a tool for environment and health policies.
ECO Forum’s proposal to have quantitative targets for each RPG as part of the Ministerial Declaration drew much discussion. Several countries (Austria, Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, and Andorra) as well as the WHO secretariat supported the idea to have at least one quantitative target per RPG within the declaration. However, a number of countries, in particular Finland and Armenia, oppose the attempt to discuss and agree upon targets.
The next steps in the preparatory process towards the Fifth Ministerial Conference include:
- EEHC meeting (27 January 2009, Luxemburg)
- Thematic meeting on healthy environments (28-29 January, Luxemburg) to focus on obesity, indoor air, injuries and to review the new text of the draft declaration
- Second NIS meeting (April 2009, Tajikistan)
- SEE countries meeting (March/April 2009, Belgrade)
- Third High-Level Meeting (27-29 April, Bonn).
Eco-Forum comments to the draft ministerial declaration for Parma 2010 are available on the Eco-Forum website.
For more information please contact:
Sascha Gabizon
E-mail: sascha.gabizon@wecf.eu
Iulia Trombitcaia
E-mail: iulia@neostrada.pl
Related News
Meet the Winners of the Gender Just Climate Solutions Award at COP24
On the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we awarded Gender Just Climate Solutions Winners at the climate negotiations in Katowice, Poland
11.12.2018
Invitation: Gender Just Climate Solutions Award 2018
10 December, COP24 Katowice
04.12.2018
Getting to the Future We Want
4-7 November, Brussels: European Environmental Bureau’s (EEB) Annual Conference
12.11.2018
GoodFood4All
WECF and partners all over Europe start GoodFood4All Campaign
06.11.2018
#Ruralwomen: join our Women2030 campaign!
15.10.2018
