European ECO-Forum News Digest

1. ECUROPEAN ECO-FORUM STRATEGY MEETING "FROM KIEV TO BELGRADE: IMPLEMENTING ENVIRONMENT FOR EUROPE DECISIONS"

The European ECO-Forum - A Pan-European Coalition of Environmental Citizens Organisations (ECOs) will hold a Strategy meeting to prepare for the 6th Ministerial Conference "Environment for Europe" (10-12 October 2007, Belgrade, Serbia).

The Conference will be organised by the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) on behalf of the ECO-Forum with the support of the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment of the Netherlands and Federal Public Service Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment of Belgium on 1-2 March 2007 in Brussels, Belgium, in Eurostation building.

The main focus will be made on the evaluation of implementation of decisions made in the framework of the Environment for Europe process since 1991 till now and the preparation of ECOs recommendations and statement for the Ministerial Conference in Belgrade. The background document for discussion will be the draft ECO-Forum Environment for Europe Implementation Report with the review of the implementation of EfE decisions, which will be disseminated for comment and preparation in mid-February 2007.

Besides the plenary discussion of the Implementation report and the Statement, ECO-Forum Issue Groups will have their thematic workshops, including

We expect 40 - 50 representatives of ECOs from the UNECE region.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE CONFERENCE IS ENGLISH

All applicants may request the financial support to cover travel, accommodation and visa costs. However, we ask you to use this opportunity responsibly as funding is limited.

Selection of participants will be made by the ECO-Forum Coordination Board in full respect to the following criteria

1.   Involvement in issues on agenda, participation in the ECO- Forum activities in the framework of the EfE.
2.   Regional balance (Western Europe / CEE and SEE / EECCA).
3.   One person from one organisation.
4.   Good representation of international NGOs.
5.   Participation of the ECO-Forum Coordination Board members

If you are interested to participate in the Strategy Meeting please send your application form to Mara Silina, EEB at mara.silina@eeb.org

ATTENTION! DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION - 15 JANUARY 2007

Application form is available at:
http://www.eco-forum.org/Belgrade/APPLICATION%20FORM.doc

2. SECOND MEETING OF THE TASK FORCE ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN INTERNATIONAL FORUMS

The Second Meeting of the Task Force on Public Participation in International Forums took place on 9-10 November 2006 in Geneva. The Task Force is a working body of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters.

The Task Force was established by the second Meeting of Parties in Almaty in May 2005. The aim of the Task Force is to consult with international forums to obtain their views on the Almaty Guidelines on promoting the principles of access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in international forums.

Between June 2006 and July 2007, the Task Force is conducting the consultation process. International forums were invited to consultations in particularly by responding to the questionnaire developed by the Task Force (see more in European ECO-Forum Newsletter No 11).

At the Second Meeting, the Secretariat presented a synthesis paper summarising the responses to the questionnaire, a statistical paper and a matrix paper including all the replies received from international forums (see http://www.unece.org/env/pp/ppif.htm).

Many Parties indicated that they needed more time to look at the papers and responses in detail. It was decided that the Secretariat is going to prepare a final version of the synthesis paper until the end of November 2006. After distribution of the final version to the members of the Task Force the members will have time to send written comments to the Secretariat.

Parties stressed that the consultation process should be a voluntary process. Therefore, it was agreed that only those forums that have shown interest in the consultation process are going to be asked to take part in the direct consultation and the workshop. Furthermore, it was agreed to include in further consultations a small number of important forums that did not reply to the questionnaire, but which are important for the Aarhus region. European ECO-Forum suggested the following forums to be approached again: Global Environment Facility; United Nations Convention on Climate Change; Basel Convention; Rotterdam Convention; Stockholm Convention; Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer; Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety; World Tourism Organization; United Nations Development Programme; World Health Organization; International Atomic Energy Agency; UNEP Mediterranean Action Plan.

It was decided to have a workshop with the title "Involving the Public in International Forums Dealing with Matters Relating to the Environment" during the time between April and June 2007. The workshop will be taking place in Geneva for 2 days in English, French and Russian languages. About 80-100 participants will be invited, including participants from 20-30 international forums, PPIF Task Force members and interested Aarhus Parties' representatives. It was agreed to have NGO representatives with experience in this area at the workshop.

NGOs are welcome to express their interest to take part in preparation of a joint NGO response/input to the results of the consultation process. NGO inputs will be compiled in one document that will ideally be presented at the workshop. In any case, the replies and the input of NGOs will be presented at the Secretariat's website and will become part of the final report to the Working Group of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention.

For more information contact:
Anke Stock
European ECO-Forum Public Participation Campaign
E-mail: anke.stock@wecf.org

3. COUNTRIES INVITED TO COMMENT ON THE REPORT ABOUT PAN-EUROPEAN ECOLOGICAL NETWORK

The Committee of Experts for the Development of the Pan-European Ecological Network has prepared a Report on the State of Development of the PEEN, which includes indicative maps for several parts of the European Region.

This Report, composed of a Technical Report on the assessment of the PEEN state of implementation and a Political Report addressing the Ministers and Heads of Delegations participating in the PEBLDS process, provides an overview of the progress made in the implementation of the concept of ecological networks in Europe.

The two parts of the Report will be submitted to the Biodiversity Session of the 6th Ministerial Conference "Environment for Europe" to be held in Belgrade from 10 to 12 October 2007.

Since the next plenary PEBLDS Council meeting will be held after the deadline fixed for submitting this category of documents to UNECE, the Joint PEBLDS Secretariat organised a written consultation procedure for the PEBLDS Council's formal approval of this Report. For this purpose, the Secretariat placed the Report on the Web and invited all delegations to send their comments to the Secretariat before 15 January 2007.

This procedure is an opportunity for NGOs to read the Report and influence the content of comments that their countries will submit to the Secretariat.

The report is available at the Council of Europe website in English:
http://www.coe.int/t/e/cultural_co-operation/
environment/nature_and_biological_diversity/
ecological_networks/peen/02assessment_report_en.asp#TopOfPage

In French:
http://www.coe.int/t/f/coop%E9ration_culturelle/
environnement/nature_et_diversit%E9_biologique/
r%E9seaux_%E9cologiques/rep/02assessment_report_fr.asp#TopOfPage

4. FIRST MEETING OF THE AARHUS CONVENTION EXPERT GROUP ON LONG-TERM STRATEGIC PLANNING

The first meeting of the Expert Group on Long-Term Strategic Planning took place in Oslo on 9-10 October 2006.

In 2005, in Almaty, the Parties to the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters mandated the development of a strategic plan for the convention for a five- year period starting in 2009.

An expert group was later established by the Bureau to develop elements for a long-term strategic plan. The group consists of 11 experts who were drawn from different backgrounds (governments, NGOs, academia, etc.) and serve in their personal capacity, without formally representing any government or organization (see composition at http://www.unece.org/env/pp/ltsp.htm). The draft strategic plan is to be submitted for adoption to the third Meeting of the Parties.

At the first meeting of the Expert Group, the Chairperson of Group Marc Pallemaerts (Belgium) presented a discussion paper that he had prepared in order to structure the discussion. The Expert Group discussed the preparation of draft elements for a long-term strategic plan for the Convention. It addressed:

-Structure and format of the plan
-Vision and mission
-Possible focal areas, and goals/objectives within those areas
-Procedure for developing the elements for the plan with appropriate involvement of the public.

It also briefly discussed indicative types of activity, the framework for implementation of the plan and the range of implementing partners, mandating the Chair with the support of the secretariat to further develop proposals with respect to the last topic.

The Expert Group agreed that the first public draft of strategic plan should be posted on website for consultation by 1 March 2007.

The short report from the meeting is available at
http://www.unece.org/env/pp/documents/LTSP-1%20report.pdf

5. TENTH MEETING OF THE EECCA ENVIRONMENTAL FINANCE NETWORK

The Task Force for the Implementation of the Environmental Action Programme for Central and Eastern Europe (EAP Task Force) organizes the tenth annual meeting of the Environmental Finance Network of experts from Eastern Europe, Caucuses and Central Asia (EECCA). The meeting will be held on 22-23 February 2007 at the OECD Headquarters in Paris.

The Network provides a forum for facilitating exchange of experience, good practices and tools among the EECCA, CEE, OECD donors, IFIs, independent experts and the NGO community on issues pertaining to environmental finance in the EECCA region.

At the Fifth "Environment for Europe" Conference, held in Kiev in May 2003, Environment Ministers endorsed the EECCA Environmental Strategy and gave the overall responsibility for overseeing its implementation to the EAP Task Force. In addition, Ministers gave the EAP Task Force a mandate to support and facilitate implementation of the Strategy in a number of areas, including environmental finance.

The major objectives of the tenth meeting of the Network are to:

The documents for the meeting in English and Russian will be
available at the web-site as soon as they become available:
http://www.oecd.org/document/5/0,2340,en_2649_34291_37808901_1_1_1_1,00.html

6. CEE NGO CONFERENCE ON SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION

The next conference of the Central and Eastern European Network of NGOs for Sustainable Consumption and Environmental Protection will take place in Prague, Czech Republic, from 28 February to 3 March 2007.

The CEE Network is a partnership of non-governmental organizations from countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It facilitates co-operation among NGOs, addressing the interrelationship among consumption patterns, consumer protection and environmental issues as they pertain to the CEE region.

The conference will focus on developing more interaction channels among organizations; bridging existing projects (both planned and currently running); expert trainings on various topics; as well as engaging NGOs in the Marrakech Process for Sustainable Consumption and Production.

Members of the CEE Network and non-members of the network are welcome to participate. See http://www.ceenetwork.org/conference/reunion2007 for more information and forms. Submission deadline: 10 January 2007.

For more information contact:
Lewis Akenji, ACC
E-mail: Lewis@tve.hu
Ondrej Velek, KOSA
E-mail: ondrej.velek@ecn.cz

7. NINTH INTERNATIONAL HCH AND PESTICIDES FORUM

The 9th International HCH and Pesticides Forum for Central and Eastern European, Caucasus and Central Asian countries will take place on 20-22 September 2007 in Chisinau, the Republic of Moldova. The Forum is organized by: International HCH & Pesticides Association, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Moldova, Federal Environment Agency of Germany, Regional Environmental Centre for Moldova and Milieukontakt Oost-Europa.

The Forum's objectives are: to review the state of the NIPs for the Stockholm Convention and to discuss the barriers and opportunities in the NIP implementation process; to review the existing monitoring systems in the countries related to POPs and obsolete pesticides problems; to present and exchange technologies and experiences for waste management and destruction of obsolete pesticides based on Moldova's experience; to discuss the national and regional strategies, actions plans and financial options for elimination of the obsolete pesticides stockpiles. The working languages of the Forum are English and Russian.

For more information contact the Forum's Secretariat:
Е-mail: forum.secretariat@moldovapops.md
Web: www.hchforum.com; www.moldovapops.md