European ECO-Forum Contribution
to the Preparation for the 3^rd Ministerial Conference
"Environment for Europe" (May 2003, Kiev, Ukraine)

(Document submitted at the WGSO-2, 28 Sep 2001, Geneva)

European ECO-Forum is a broad ad hoc Coalition of Environmental Citizens Organisations (ECOs) in the UN/ECE region that has more then 200 ECO/NGOs from almost all UN/ECE countries. In course of preparation to the 3rd Ministerial Conference "Environment for Europe" ECO-Forum has undertaken and is being preparing different activities and events in the framework of itÆs Issue Groups and the entire coalition.

Recoginising the the importance of Environmental Policy Integration at all levels ECO-Forum proposes to organise in Kiev a special Session between Ministers and ECO/NGOs similar to one being organised in Aarhus in 1998, on the issue of Integration of Environmental Considerations into Sectoral Policies.

The session should provide for a special space on the agenda for an informal and frank discussion between environmentalists and Ministers about the nature of the bottlenecks for integration of environmental requirements into sectoral and horizontal policies, discuss good examples of environmental policies in the UN/ECE region, look at their potential and discuss ways to promote these. The objective of the session should be to identify problems in this area and suggest ways to seek their solutions, clarify each others roles and their complementarily. It is not the objective to negotiate a common declaration, as that would change the character of the event too much.

As possible key topics for the programmes of such event ECO-Forum suggests the following options:

• Let the market work for the environment;
• An example of Sectoral Policy integration: Transport Policies/ Agriculture/Energy;
• How to overcome the institutional weaknesses that prevent integration.

The preparation of the session should start in September 2002.

European ECO-Forum has taken part in a number of workshops and seminars on the SEA. Public Participation Campaigns Committee (PPCC) of the ECO-Forum has

• prepared ECOs position on SEA Protocol;
• organised Web-discussion on the SEA issues (in English and Russian);
• published Plain Language Pamphlet on SEA "Participatory SEA" (2001);
• set up an NGO network on SEA.

In the framework of the work on the implementation of the Aarhus Convention and work on public participation European ECO-Forum

• prepared action oriented pamphlet "What is the Aarhus convention. Citizen's rights under the Aarhus Convention", which was published in English, Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian languages and distributed among 700 NGOs and public;
• actively participate in all Task Forces and Working Groups (on GMOs, PRTR, Compliance Mechanism and Rules of Procedure, Access to Justice) established under the Aarhus Convention, ensuring public participation provisions in different international legally binding and non-binding instruments;
• in the framework of the PRTR WG activities:
• ECO-Forum has organised in co-operation with REC a workshop on PRTR. The PRTR Working Group meetings have been always preceded by small meetings of the NGO representatives;
• prepared:
• considerable input to the Secretariat for the [draft] technical Annexes on lists of substances and activities;
• comments on the Netherlands paper on diffuse sources of pollutants;
• input into the preparation of the draft elements (informally);
• general comments on the draft elements;
• general comments on the substances/activities/diffuse sources/data validation.
• calls for extensive reporting (e.g. large numbers of chemicals, wide range of activities, diffuse sources).

• European ECO-Forum PPCC prepared a study of the implementation of Principles 10 and 15 of the Rio-de-Janeiro (1992) Declaration "Implementing Rio Principles in Europe: Participation and Precaution" (with the support of UNEP/ROE). Pre-printed English text version was presented at the UN/ECE Regional PrepCom for the WSSD (25.09.2001). The publication in English and Russian will be available in mid-October 2001.
• ECO-Forum participates in different initiatives on implementation of the Principle 10 of the Rio-de-Janeiro (1992) Declaration around the world (WRI "Access Initiative", IUCN Commission on Environmental Law Initiative, Environmental Law Association for CEE and the NIS);
• ECO-Forum is involved in the preparation of Access to Justice Handbook as a partner of the REC (with the financial support of the UK Government).

In April 2001 ECO-Forum organised a consultation in the Internet and developed ECO/NGO proposals on the content of the Third Pan-European Environmental Assessment Report, that have been sent to the EEA. ECO-Forum will continue participating in the consultation process on preparations of the Assessment Report, promote and facilitate active public participation in the process. In order to involve public the ECO-Forum proposes to organise a series of round tables (at sub-regional level, including three regions of the NIS, CEE and the Western Europe) with the participation of EEA experts, WGEM members and NGO representatives. The goal of these workshops will be to discuss draft Kiev Assessment Report not later than 6 months before the Conference and to provide EEA with comments on the draft. ECO-Forum also plans organise an Internet discussion of the draft report in English and Russian.

ECO-Forum has developed and presented the Position Paper on Civil Liability and Water-Related Accidents to the First Meeting of the Working Group (2-3 July 2001). We call upon governments to develop a legally binding international instrument in the format of a Protocol which should focus on water-related activities, not be limited to hazardous activities in the mining and manufacturing industries and encompass not only accidents or hazardous or dangerous activities, but also be applied to normal or non-hazardous activities.

ECO-Forum EAP Issue Group in co-operation with ECO-Accord (Russia) has organised a series of NIS workshops and NIS NGO pre-conference for the NIS High Level Consultation in Almaty, Kazakhstan (October, 2000). The NGO position paper was presented at the Consultation.

We plan in 2001 - early 2003:

• organise NIS NGO workshops on the development of the 2^nd generation of NEAPs in the NIS, that will develop position paper and NGO recommendations on the preparation of the second generation of NEAPs;
• organise NIS NGO conference on the implementation of the decisions of the Almaty-2000 High Level Consultation on urban water sector reform in the NIS ("Almaty+1") and problems of integration in countries with economies in transition, collect case studies on this issues from different NIS countries and develop NGO recommendations;
• organise consultation process and NIS NGO workshop on environmental management on enterprises in the NIS.

The ECO-Forum EAP Issue Group will continue actively participate in the EAP TF activities and facilitate NIS NGOs involvement in the process.

Based on the Pan-European Sustainable Energy NGO Seminar September 2001 in Denmark NGO is recommended a strong follow-up of the proposals from the Arhus98 conference on energy efficiency, including:

An international code of conduct for energy efficiency investments, to be adopted by the MDB's. It should promote small-scale investments and enable transparancy and comparability. All investments in energy and energy services should be subject to - at least - a simple energy and environmental impact assessment.

Implementation of practical co-operation, e.g. on labelling of energy efficiency.

Operationalise phase-out of environmental harmful subsidies with a guideline for phase-out of these subsidies, with quantification of the subsidies, examples of optimal phase-out, and policy recommendations. (countries should report on progress with this phase-out to Kiev2003).

ECO-Forum Biodiversity Issue Group in co-operation with the IUCN, ECNC and BirdLife International participates as an observer in the PEBLDS Enlarged Bureau activities and contributes ECO/NGOs Position papers.

ECO-Forum proposal on cross-sectoral mechanisms of PEBLDS implementation has been submitted to the Ministerial Conference on Biodiversity in Europe (Riga, 2000).

In Kiev 2003 ECO-Forum proposes to organise a side event between NGOs and Ministers that will discuss further development of the Pan-European Ecological Network in the context of cross-sectoral co-operation in biodiversity conservation.

ECO-Forum Environment and Health Issue Group in co-operation with European Health and Environment Network (eHEN) has participated in the High Level meeting on Transport, Environment and Health (May 2001) and is being preparing to contribute to the preparation to the second High Level meeting in July 2002, providing NGOs input to the process.

Recognising the essential role of education for transition to sustainable development, changing consumption and production patterns, creating preconditions for integration of environmental considerations into all sectoral policies and awareness raising, ECO-Forum strongly supports the proposal of the Government of Ukraine to develop the European Charter on Environmental Education and calls upon governments to consider the preparation of the Pan-European Charter on Education for Sustainable Development.

ECO-Forum has set up a network of experts on education for environment and development to substantially contribute to the process of the Charter preparation.

We propose to consider organisation of a European Conference on Education for Sustainable Development "Tbilisi+25" at the 25th anniversary of the UNESCO Environmental Education Conference in Tbilisi, Georgia, 1977). This Conference may produce a substantive input in the preparation of the Charter.

European ECO-Forum has established the Co-ordination Unit and Information Centre that publishes

• electronic news-digest in English (2 times a month) and news-releases in Russian (up to 2 times a week in the format of brief summaries);
• European ECO-Forum Newsletter (quarterly, 1000 copies).
• Established the ECO-Forum Web-site.
• Co-ordinates different Issue Groups activities and supports thematic list-serves, facilitates ECO/NGO involvement in the "Environment for Europe" process.

We would like to thank those governments that support the international NGO Coalition/ European ECO-Forum in the past, and in particular the Danish Government, that is supporting our overall co-ordination and work in preparation to the Kiev Ministerial Conference, Governments of Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK for support of different ECO-Forum projects, and we call upon other governments to support us in our further work.