1. MEETING OF THE EXTENDED BUREAU OF THE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL
POLICY
2. THIRD HIGH LEVEL PREPARATORY MEETING TO PARMA-2010
3. DETERMINATION AND APPLICATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE FINES FOR
ENVIRONMENTAL OFFENCES
4. WORKING GROUP ON INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT TO DISCUSS
PREPARATORY STEPS TOWARDS THE FIFTH MEETING OF THE PARTIES TO THE UNECE WATER
CONVENTION
5. WORLD HEALTH YOUTH ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH COMMUNICATION NETWORK
1. MEETING OF THE EXTENDED BUREAU OF THE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL
POLICY
The Extended Bureau meeting of the Committee on Environmental Policy
(CEP) took place on 19 May 2009 in Geneva.
Apart from the CEP Bureau members meeting was attended by the EU Presidency
(Czech Republic), chairpersons of UNECE Conventions, UNECE Secretariat, members
of the Working Group on Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (WGEMA) and
Environmental Performance Review Expert Group, EEA, UNEP, UNDP, EAP Task Force,
REC Caucasus and REC for Central Asia. European ECO Forum was represented by
Mara Silina, Chairperson of the Coordination Board.
The purpose of this meeting was to brainstorm on possibilities for the
preparation of the assessment report(s) required for the next “Environment for
Europe” (EfE) Ministerial Conference to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan,
in 2011. The EfE Reform Plan adopted by the CEP and endorsed by the UNECE
established that the pan-European assessment would be among the official
substantive documentation for the EfE Conferences. The Plan also states that
preliminary findings of available assessments and statistical reports on
environment should be taken into account when CEP will decide about the themes
for and discuss the outline of the Conference.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) was invited to inform the meeting
about the developments within and outside the agency that have an impact on its
capacity to prepare a fifth pan-European assessment report. Until now the EEA
has produced four assessments for the “Environment for Europe” process and was
asked in the conclusion to the Belgrade
conference to consider producing the fifth assessment for the Astana
conference. However, the situation has changed both in respect to EU policy
(affecting the resources available for this activity and the focus of interest)
as well as to the way of conducting environmental assessments and the EEA
currently is not in a position to produce the next pan-European assessment
report. In the planning of the EEA’s
next regular five-year State and Outlook Environment report, expected to be
published late 2010 (SOER2010), the EEA Management Board has considered a
number of options. However, they have rejected the idea of extending EEA’s
regular five-year report to the pan-European area. Thus, the SOER2010 will
cover 32 EEA member countries and 7 Western Balkan countries. Nevertheless, the
Management Board has asked the EEA to make linkages between SOER2010 and other
regional assessment efforts. To this end the EEA has put forward and received
support for the notion of an umbrella SOER2010 process and a report of several
parts covering also regions outside EEA.
Having this information in mind, the UNECE Secretariat prepared the note
on pan-European and other assessment reports for the next EfE conference where various
options for the preparation of a pan-European assessment for the Astana
conference were presented. One of the
possible options is that the EEA might be able to offer an EECCA supplement to
its SOER2010 as an additional part. Alternatively, a self-standing document
could be prepared for the Astana EfE conference on the basis of SOER2010 and
the EECCA assessment. Another option mentioned was to prepare another type of
pan-European assessment which would be different from previous ones. In this
case, the Global Footprint Network expressed its readiness to prepare such
report following the template of the “Living Planet Report”. Preparation of a
set of thematic assessment reports was also mentioned as an option.
Most of participants of the meeting, including the European ECO Forum
were in favour of the first option with the EEA being involved in the preparation
of the pan-European assessment but agreed that further discussions are needed. It
has been announced that the EEA will hold a meeting on this topic on 3 July in Copenhagen to complement
and further deepen the discussions from this Extended Bureau meeting.
At the end of the meeting, UNECE Convention Secretariats and other
organisations informed participants about recent and upcoming assessments which
could support the selection of themes for the Astana EfE conference. Assessments
already foreseen for the next conference include the second assessment of
transboundary waters and report on the results of the second round of the Environmental
Performance Reviews. EAP Task Force also intends to produce several outputs on
environmental policy reform and water supply and sanitation sector in EECCA
countries. Themes for the next EfE conference in Astana will be selected at the
CEP meeting in March 2010.
For more information, please contact:
Mara Silina, European Environmental Bureau
Chair of the CB of the European ECO Forum
E-mail:
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2. THIRD HIGH LEVEL PREPARATORY MEETING TO PARMA-2010
On 27-29 April 2009, Third High Level Preparatory Meeting and an
executive session of the European Environment and Health Committee took place
in Bonn, Germany. The European ECO Forum was
represented by Sascha Gabizon (Coordinator of Environment and Health Issue
Group at European ECO Forum, Women in Europe for a Common Future - WECF), Sonja
Haider and Johanna Hausmann (WECF), and Iulia Trombitcaia (Eco-Accord, Russia).
These meetings focused on the preparation to the Fifth Ministerial
Conference on Environment and Health (Parma-2010), in particular:
-Documentation and agenda
for the Fifth Ministerial Conference;
-Draft Ministerial
Declaration and the policy document on climate change as major outcomes of the
Ministerial Conference;
-Future of the Environment
and Health process.
The dates of 24 to 26
February 2010, Parma, Italy were announced as final for
the Fifth Ministerial Conference. 23 February will be a day for pre-conference
events such as youth event, meetings of South East European (SEE) countries and
Newly Independent States (NIS), and an event on the Protocol on Water and
Health. The session that will encompass a panel discussion/roundtable with
stakeholders is currently scheduled for the second day (25 February) afternoon.
Participants commented on drafts conference papers, including documents
on climate change and on socioeconomic and gender inequities, which
are the main topics on the Conference agenda. An update on
progress achieved on ‘Gender Inequities in Environment and Health’ was given by
the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs of Spain as a lead country.
The United Kingdom
as a lead country provided update on the document ‘Protecting health in an
environment challenged by climate change: A Regional Framework for Action’. The
Regional Framework for Action will be a policy document presented at the
Ministerial Conference, with some key elements included in the Ministerial
Declaration.
The Regional Framework for Action sets five pillars for action for the
WHO European Member States in areas of adaptation and mitigation climate change
measures, primarily in the health sector. It encourages development of national
action plans by 2012 as well as development and regular update of integrated
climate change environment and health impact, adaptation and vulnerability
assessments. Delegates welcomed the document. Several countries and the
European ECO Forum stressed the need to bring more actions from this policy
document into the draft Ministerial Declaration as well as the need for
assistance to countries of NIS
and SEE in implementing the Regional Framework for Action. A joint presentation
of the German Ministry of Environment and the WHO Regional Office for Europe
described examples from NIS and SEE countries
where opportunities for protecting health from climate change were possible due
to the financial support provided by Germany.
The WHO Regional Office for Europe
presented a new web-map questionnaire as a mechanism to organise country
reporting on implementation of the Children’s Environment and Health Action
Plan for Europe (CEHAPE). The meeting discussed, paragraph by paragraph, the
Draft Ministerial Declaration for the Parma-2010 conference. The most important
thing is that the draft includes school specific targets for each Regional
Priority Goal of the CEHAPE, which should ensure focused actions for the
upcoming years.
The future of the Environment and Health process following Parma-2010
provoked a very lively discussion. It was the first time in the preparatory
process to Parma
when this issue was raised in the plenary in presence of all member states,
international organisations and stakeholders.
The European ECO Forum stressed that environmental non-governmental
organisations believe in the great value of this process to reduce the burden
of disease and to take a strong policy stance, in particular by strengthening
the ministries of health and environment and by addressing regional
differences. The European ECO Forum proposed to reinstate the CEHAPE Task Force
and to establish a CEHAPE Implementation Fund. Addressing the concerns of a
number of countries whether we can afford current and new institutional
frameworks in time of economic crisis, European ECO Forum proposed sharing
resources with other secretariats, for example of the Transport, Health and
Environment Pan-European Programme (THE PEP) and of the Water and Health
Protocol. The European ECO Forum stressed the need to look at moving towards a
legally binding process and to consider taking the process to a global level.
Presentations by the German Federal Environment Agency showed results of
the recent research on monitoring hazardous chemicals. Among others, these
showed worrying information on phthalates, known to be hormone disrupters and
possibly causing cancer. Children of all age and social groups had very high
levels of phthalates in their bodies. The combined effects are of a special concern
as well. The sources of these phthalates seem to come for some 60% from food
intake. The occurrence of phthalates in food is not yet well researched, but
might be linked to the use of plastic containers, packaging and tubes in food
processing, as for example all types of milk sampled, including organic milk,
contained high phthalate levels.
The next preparatory steps on the way to Parma-2010 include:
-Third meeting of the Drafting Group on the Ministerial Declaration (Andorra, 16-17
June 2009);
-Youth preparatory event (Serbia, end of June 2009).
Sascha Gabizon, Women in Europe for a
Common Future
Coordinator of Environment and Health Issue Group of the European ECO Forum
E-mail:
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Iulia Trombitcaia, Eco-Accord,
Russia
E-mail:
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3. DETERMINATION AND APPLICATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE FINES FOR
ENVIRONMENTAL OFFENCES
Draft Guidance for Environmental Enforcement
Authorities in countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) on
determination and application of administrative fines for environmental
offences was prepared by the Secretariat of the Task Force for the
Implementation of the Environmental Action Programme for Central and Eastern Europe,
Caucasus and Central Asia (EAP Task Force).
This document provides environmental authorities in
EECCA countries with guidance on how to determine and apply administrative
fines for environmental offences, based on best practices in several OECD countries.
The draft was presented and discussed at a regional expert meeting in
Tallinn, Estonia, on 19-20 March 2009, and is proposed for endorsement at the
annual meeting of the Regulatory Environmental Programme Implementation Network
(REPIN network) in Chisinau, Moldova, on 10-12 June 2009.
The document stresses that all EECCA countries use administrative
monetary penalties in environmental enforcement, but they are mostly directed
at physical persons and officials. Their size does not account for the offender’s
economic benefit resulting from non-compliance, and the collection rates are
generally low.
The document summarises the fundamental principles of the design of
effective environmental fines and describes a methodology to assess economic
benefits of non-compliance or delayed compliance. It explains how to take into
account the seriousness of an environmental offence (actual or possible harm
and importance of the type of violation). Also, the document deals with
operator-specific factors in adjusting the size of a fine, including the degree
of wilfulness or negligence, history of non-compliance, ability to pay, degree
of cooperation with the enforcement agency, etc. The implementation issues
(including the consistency, transparency, and enforceability of penalty
decisions) are also addressed. Specific short- to medium-term recommendations
for EECCA countries that follow from the international best practices are
provided.
4. WORKING GROUP ON INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT TO DISCUSS
PREPARATORY STEPS TOWARDS THE FIFTH MEETING OF THE PARTIES TO THE UNECE WATER
CONVENTION
The Working Group on Integrated Water Resources Management under the
Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes
(UNECE Water Convention) will have its 4th meeting in Geneva on 8–9 July 2009. The main objectives
are to review the implementation of the activities in the Convention’s work plan
for 2007–2009 and to agree on a draft work plan for 2010–2012. The latter work plan
will be submitted for discussion and adoption at the Fifth Meeting of the
Parties (Geneva,
10–12 November 2009).
The Working Group will comment on draft Guide to Implementing the UNECE
Water Convention as developed by the Legal Board of the Convention. It will
agree on ways to finalize the draft Guide and to make arrangements for its
submission to the Fifth Meeting of the Parties for adoption.
The Working Group is also expected to comment on the draft Guidance on
Water and Adaptation to Climate Change as developed by the Task Force on Water
and Climate, and to agree on ways to finalize it so that it could also be submitted to the Meeting of the
Parties for adoption.
The preparation of the “second assessment” of transboundary rivers, lakes and groundwaters in the UNECE region, to
be ready by the next “Environment for Europe”
Ministerial Conference in 2011 in Astana, is another important item on the agenda.
The Working Group will discuss recent developments under the EU Water
Initiative and its National Policy Dialogues process regarding integrated water
resources management, and water supply and sanitation. Particular attention
will be given to the ongoing dialogue processes in Armenia,
Kyrgyzstan, the Republic of Moldova
and Ukraine, as well as the
activities envisaged in Azerbaijan,
Georgia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
The documents of the Working Group are available at
5. WORLD HEALTH YOUTH ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH COMMUNICATION NETWORK
WHO-Europe, with the assistance of the World Health Communication
Associates, supports the World Health Youth (WHY) Environment and Health
Communication Network. Its key objective is to catalyze the involvement of
young journalists from European countries in the environment and health
process, thus developing capacity, enhancing the quality and quantity of
coverage, and building sustainable communications across the WHO European
Region.
Young journalists (18-30 years old) are invited to join the Network.
Feature stories from WHY journalists will be entered into a competition
focusing on national perspectives on key environment and health challenges and
progress to date. Selected entries will be included in a publication on the
20-year history of the “Environment and Health” process in Europe to be
launched at the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health (Parma, 24-26 February
2010). Winning journalists will be invited to Italy in 2010 to receive their
awards.
The stories may be written in English and/or Russian. Russian stories
need to be accompanied by an abstract in English. 17 July 2009 is the deadline
for submission of stories by WHY journalists. Winning submissions will be
selected by a panel of judges appointed by WHO-Europe and partners.
