TOWARDS BELGRADE-2007
EUROPEAN ECO-FORUM NEWSLETTER
No 26
SEPTEMBER 2007

1. THE DRAFTING GROUP FOR PREPARING THE MINISTERIAL DECLARATION
MADE A LITTLE PROGRESS IN FINALIZING THE TEXT

The Drafting Group for preparing the Ministerial Declaration had its 3rd meeting in Geneva on 29-31 August 2007. The group discussed the draft of the Declaration to be adopted by Environment Ministers at the 6th "Environment for Europe" Conference (Belgrade, 10-12 October 2007). The meeting was chaired by Mr.Vesic, WGSO Chair, Serbia. The European ECO-Forum was represented by Klara Hajdu (CEEWEB) and Victoria Elias (Chairperson of ECO-Forum's Coordination Board).

The Drafting Group made a little progress in finalizing the text. Some new text proposals were introduced by EU led by Portugal, USA, Russia, group of EECCA countries, Switzerland, PEBLDS, ECO-Forum and some others. The new draft will be submitted to the Working Group of Senior Officials for finalization at its upcoming meeting in Belgrade on 6-8 October 2007, right before the Ministerial Conference. In the meantime, it is expected that delegations will be informally communicating between themselves by e-mail attempting to agree on compromise wordings of specific paragraphs in advance to the WGSO Belgrade meeting.

The new Draft Ministerial declaration (amended by the Drafting Group) is available at
http://www.unece.org/env/efe/wgso/Belgrade/documents/WGSO/ece.cep.ac.11.2007.26.rev1.e.AdvanceCopy.doc
 
For more information contact:
Victoria Elias
Chairperson
European ECO-Forum Coordination Board
E-mail: velias@mail.ru

2.SERBIAN NGO STATEMENT "ENVIRONMENT FOR SERBIA"

Serbian environmental NGOs have developed their statement "Environment for Serbia. Approaching the VI Pan-European Ministerial Conference "Environment for Europe", Belgrade, October 2007".

The Statement was drafted by seven working groups of Serbian NGO  representatives: WG "Values for Sustainable Development", WG for Sustainable Production and Consumption, WG for Biodiversity, WG for Energy, WG for Education, WG for Aarhus Convention (Public Participation) and WG for Regional Priorities. The group sessions were facilitated by the OSCE Mission to Serbia, UNDP and the Regional Environmental Center - Country Office Serbia.

NGOs stress that considerable efforts have been made in the environmental protection in the Republic of Serbia after the Kiev Conference (2003) but there is still much room for improvement. They welcome the establishment of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and invite all governmental bodies for better and more efficient cooperation with the civil sector.

NGOs express their expectations and demands regarding concrete fields of importance for the "Environment for Europe" process. NGOs request the Government to adopt the National Sustainable Development Strategy of the Republic of Serbia as well as the Action Plan for its implementation while ensuring the participation of the civil sector in this process. They stress the need to prepare and adopt the National Strategy on Biodiversity. NGOs emphasize the need to inform the public about the damage done to the biodiversity following the NATO bombing in 1999 and to repeat the analyses in order to get a clear picture of the consequences for biodiversity.

NGOs appeal to the Government to reconsider existing instruments and programs for financing, which have a negative impact on the biodiversity (i.e. some of the programs in thе National Investment Plan to stimulate mass tourism development in protected areas) and relocate these resources to the programs of sustainable development and biodiversity protection.

In order to ensure environmental regional cooperation, NGOs ask the governments to consider concluding of a Balkan Convention on Protection and Sustainable Development of the Mountain Regions in South East Europe.

3.COMMENTS INVITED ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN INTERNATIONAL FORUMS

The European ECO-Forum's Public Participation Campaign is in the process of preparing comments on NGO experience regarding the application of the Almaty Guidelines on Public Participation in International Forums (see Guidelines in English at http://www.unece.org/env/documents/2005/pp/ece/ece.mp.pp.2005.2.add.5.e.pdf ). In order to make the picture more accurate and reflect on the experiences of as many international forums as possible, you are invited to respond to the following questions by 15 September 2007:

(a) Does the international forum you are involved in have any formalized rules or procedures concerning access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters?

(b) Does the international forum you are involved in have any non- formalized practices concerning access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters?

(c) Are there any current or future workplans of the international forum you are involved in that may affect the extent of or modalities for access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters?

(d) In particular, what kind of challenges, if any, has your organisation encountered with regard to access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters when working with international forums or trying to get involved in their work?

(e) Is there a need to amend Almaty Guidelines on PPIF, and, if yes, what would be your concrete textual suggestions?

The responses to these questions could be very simple and short. But it would also be appreciated if you could stop more in detail on some or all of them, as it would help better understand your responses and properly reflect your feedback in ECO-Forum's overview. The overview will be presented for your comments on 17 September 2007 through aarhus.econet list and will be forwarded later to the Secretariat of the Aarhus Convention.

For more information contact:
Serhiy Vykhryst
Public Participation Campaign
European ECO-Forum
E-mail: serhiyv@bk.ru

4.WORKING GROUP OF THE PARTIES TO THE AARHUS CONVENTION

The 8th meeting of the Working Group of the Parties to the UNECE  Convention on Access to Information, Public.Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention) will take place on 31 October - 2 November 2007 in Geneva.

The Working Group will address the progress in preparing the national implementation reports, including the application of the Guidance on reporting requirements for the second reporting cycle. It will also consider a draft of a long-term strategic plan for the Convention and revise it as necessary for further consideration at its next meeting or by the Meeting of the Parties (MoP). The Working Group will discuss the preparations for the Third MoP (June 2008, Riga), including main elements for the programme and agenda as well as the perspectives for scheduling the first Meeting of Parties to the Protocol on Polluter Release and Transfer Registers back to back with the Aarhus Convention MoP-3.

If you are applying to participate and would like to receive financial support for that, please send your registration form and financial support request form to the Secretariat (Ms. Andrea Hegedus) and please copy your message to Mara Silina. Official deadline is 14 September 2007 but as the Public Participation Campaign Committee will need to do a selection we would appreciate your response as soon as possible.

For more information contact:
Mara Silina
European Environmental Bureau
Public Participation Campaign of European ECO-Forum
E-mail: mara.silina@eeb.org

5.FIRST STAGE OF NATIONAL IMPLEMENTATION REPORT PROCESS UNDER THE AARHUS CONVENTION

The first stage of the National Implementation Reports (NIRs) preparation process under the second reporting cycle of the Aarhus Convention ended on 15 August 2007. The European ECO-Forum has received about 25 notices from NGOs, describing the situation with preparation on NIRs in 19 UNECE Member States. The overall picture is the following:

- As of today, the Aarhus Convention has 41 Parties (including the European Community).

- 31 Parties submitted NIRs during the first reporting cycle before MoP-2 (2004-2005). No reports were submitted by Signatories and other States not a Party to the Convention.

- Only 9 Parties started the NIR preparation process under the second reporting cycle pursuant (more or less) to the timeline of the "Guidance on Reporting Requirements" (including 4 EECCA countries).

- At least in 3 cases, the official NIR preparation process started only after NGOs informed the Ministry about the necessity to start it.

- 7 out of 9 Parties which have started preparing the NIR took part in the previous reporting cycle.

- In 7 countries, NGOs were invited to participate in the NIR preparation (in some others, the state authorities promised to run public consultations in "due time").

- In 3 cases, formal consultations on the content of the NIR were organised and in 1 case - they were of an informal nature.

- In all countries NGOs were able to identify the responsible state authority and responsible person for NIR preparation. Almost in all cases NGOs were able to communicate with the responsible person and received feedback.

Please note that the first draft of the NIR should be ready by mid- September 2007.

For more information contact:
Serhiy Vykhryst
Public Participation Campaign
European ECO-Forum
E-mail: serhiyv@bk.ru