European ECO-Forum News Digest

The Executive Committee of the Working Group of Senior Officials (WGSO) held its fifth meeting in Geneva on 14-15 February 2007.

The main discussion at Execom focused on the review of the drafts of Category 1 documents for Belgrade Ministerial Conference. Organisations responsible for the preparation of the documents briefly introduced them to the ExeCom. Final drafts of Category I documents and the final titles of Category II documents shall be submitted to the UNECE Secretariat by 1 March 2007. The drafts of category II documents and their one-page summaries shall be submitted to UNECE Secretariat by 1 May 2007. It was agreed that all papers that would be submitted as 1 page summaries by 1 May can be reflected in the Belgrade Conference Synthesis Report.

All category I documents that were submitted to ExeCom were approved. In addition, several other drafts were presented at the meeting including one on SEE cooperation in the field of climate change that proposes an establishment of a sub regional climate change, water partnership in EECCA and a paper on EECCA future; however, the current list of category I documents does not include these papers.

ExeCom also reviewed a Draft Ministerial Declaration (which was further discussed 15-16 March by the open-ended Drafting Group for the Ministerial Declaration.

Documents of ExeCom meeting are available at:
http://www.unece.org/env/efe/wgso/Belgrade/ExecomMeetings.htm

2. BELGRADE MINISTERIAL DECLARATION DRAFTING GROUP

The first meeting of the open-ended Drafting Group for the Ministerial Declaration for Belgrade-2007 took place in Geneva right after the ExeCom session.

The Drafting group was attended by almost all countries and interested organisations. Participants welcomed the draft structure prepared by the Secretariat. It was proposed that the 3rd chapter ("They Way Forward") should address commitments made by the Ministers at the Conference.

Is was agreed that the Ministerial Declaration should be kept short (not longer then 5 pages), include all topics of the Belgrade Conference (also including Biodiversity and Education for Sustainable Development) and be discussed and drafted via the open, inclusive and transparent consultative process, which should be reflected on the web. After the general discussion at the first day, delegates submitted their proposals to the text in writing. The proposals were summaries by the Secretariat and disseminated to the delegations as Draft elements for the Ministerial declaration. The Russian Federation presented a proposal on the new structure of the Declaration. In general, delegates expressed the opinion that this proposal can be merged with the elaborated elements. It was decided that all countries and interested parties should submit their comments on the draft Declaration to the Secretariat in writing by 15 March. The proposals will be further summarised and put into the new draft for discussion.

The next meetings of the Declaration drafting group would be held on 2-3 July and 30-31 August. The text will also be presented to the next WGSO meeting 30-31 May 2007.

Draft elements and further information on the drafting process are available at:
www.unece.org/env/efe/wgso/Belgrade/DGmeetings.html

3. PREPARATION TO FORTHCOMING EAP TASK FORCE MEETINGS

On the way to "Environment for Europe" Ministerial Conference in Belgrade, the EAP Task Force organises three meetings in mid- March 2007 in Brussels. These meetings are supposed to address the following problems:

-The annual meeting of the Regulatory Environmental Programme Implementation Network (REPIN) in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) on 13 March will focus on the findings and recommendations of a draft review of environmental compliance assurance systems in EECCA.

-An international multi-stakeholder workshop "Environmental Policies, Instruments, and Institutions in EECCA: The Emerging Agenda" on 13-14 March is intended to enable an open dialogue in order to review progress with reform and implementation of environmental policies in EECCA in light of recent economic and social developments and identify priority issues of environmental management in EECCA that should be addressed after the Belgrade "Environment for Europe" Ministerial Conference.

-The 5th Joint Meeting of the EAP Task Force and the Project Preparation Committee (PPC) on 15-16 March will finalise substantive inputs of the EAP Task Force and the PPC to Belgrade "Environment for Europe" Ministerial Conference.

The documents of these meetings are available at:
http://www.oecd.org/department/0,2688,en_2649_34291_1_1_1_1_1,00.html

The EAP Issue Group of the European ECO-Forum currently organises an electronic discussion through [eecca_env_strategy] list (in Russian). The participants are invited to answerquestions proposed by moderator and submit other comments concerning the documents of the meetings.

If you wish to join the group or to request more information contact:
Olga Ponizova
Eco-Accord Center, Russia
EAP Issue Group Coordinator at European ECO-Forum
E-mail: ponizova@leadnet.ru

4. INVITATION FOR NGOs FROM CENTRAL ASIA

Non-governmental organisations of Central Asia are invited to actively engage in the preparation of the regional input into the Belgrade "Environment for Europe" Conference of Ministers and its decisions.

The Working Group of Central Asian Countries met in December 2006 to discuss the preparatory activities to Belgrade Conference. It addressed a number of issues about developing a consolidated position of Central Asian countries towards the upcoming Pan-European conference. In order to implement Kyiv decisions, the Working Group decided to develop an informational document on problems and perspectives of Central Asian Initiative (CAI), draft Partnership Agreement, draft resolution on the International Coordination Board of Central Asia and a list of projects on implementation of CAI.

The Working Group approved the draft of the documents on CAI and submitted it to the meeting of WGSO's Executive Committee held on 14-15 February 2007.

Taking into account the importance of Belgrade agenda for the conservation of the environment and achievement of development goals in Central Asia as well as the need to strengthen the role of NGOs in environmental activities, the Central Asian Regional Environmental Centre (CAREC) invites NGOs of Central Asia to take active part and make an effective contribution in the preparation of the Conference.

As a result of open competition, the CAREC supports a regional partnership project of NGO "EcoIDEA" (Kazakhstan) and NGO "Tabiyat-Life" (Kyrgyzstan) to enhace public participation in the preparation of Central Asian countries to Belgrade Conference.

There will be an additional competition announced in spring 2007 to organise national and regional discussion on CAI.

The CAREC has opened a new page at www.carec.kz devoted to Belgrade Ministerial Conference. The new resource displaces major documents on Belgrade-2007 and CAI. It is planned to organise an Internet forum later on. For more information contact:
Ismail Dairov
CAREC
E-mail: Idairov@carec.kz,
Source: EkoPravda-Kazakhstan-642.

5. CONFERENCE "HEALTH IN THE ENLARGED EU"

The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) organises an International Conference "Health in the Enlarged EU" on 16-17 April 2007 in Bratislava (Slovak Republic).

The EPHA is an alliance of more than 100 non-governmental and non-for-profit organisations working on health related issues in the European Union. The conference will mark the conclusion of its three-year project "Building the Public Health Community across Europe". It is intended to showcase the impact of the European Enlargement on the health of citizens especially in Central and Eastern European countries.

The objectives of the conference are:

- Discuss how the EU Enlargement influenced the health status, health determinants, health care systems in the new member states and to identify benefits and problems to take into account in future enlargement.
- Present the work of EPHA members in relation to the priorities of EU health policy.
- Propose timely policy recommendations to the European Commission to be included in the EU Health Strategy.

EPHA expects between 100-150 participants from NGOs, academia, policy makers and specially participants from Central and Eastern European countries. Registration is free. There are grants for NGO representatives from Eastern European countries to cover travel and accommodation costs.

More information at: http://www.conference2007.epha.org

For more information contact:
Iva Misigova, Scientific Coordinator
E-mail: conference2007@epha.org
Caroline Heu-Boidin, Logistics Officer
E-mail: registration@epha.org