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).
The 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 for the Fifth Ministerial Conference - 24-26 February 2010, Parma,
Italy - were announced as final. 23 February is the day for pre-conference
events such as a youth event, meetings of South Eastern Europe (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.
The 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 the areas of adaptation and mitigation climate
change measures, primarily in the health sector. It encourages the
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. The 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 the 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 webmap 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, 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).
The European ECO Forum’s intervention about the future of the Environment
and Health process is available at http://www.eco-forum.org/documents/Intervention-Gabizon-EH.doc
Documentation of the meeting is available at http://www.euro.who.int/eehc/meetings/20090204_2
For more information please contact:
Iulia Trombitcaia, Eco-Accord, Russia
E-mail: iutrombitcaia@rambler.ru
Sascha Gabizon, Women in Europe for a Common Future
Coordinator of Environment and Health Issue Group of the European ECO-Forum
E-mail: sascha.gabizon@wecf.eu
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