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EUROPEAN ECO FORUM NEWSLETTER No 30 |
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1. VIENNA STRATEGY MEETING: A CALL TO SIGN AN IMPORTANT DECLARATION ON THE AARHUS CONVENTION More than 30 environmentalists from 22 countries met in Vienna on 17-18 December 2007 at the International ECOs Strategy meeting "Reinforcing the Aarhus Convention". Two days agenda of the meeting was focusing on developments under the Aarhus Convention and the Protocol on PRTRs after the Second meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention in Almaty, May 2005, implementation of the Aarhus Convention at national level, and preparations for the next meeting of the Parties in Riga, June 2008. The participants discussed the future work of the European ECO Forum's Public Participation Campaign, including capacity building activities for the network. The Strategy meeting ended with the adoption of the Vienna Declaration which has been circulated for signatures to other NGOs around the pan-European region. The Vienna Declaration, among others, calls upon Bosnia/Herzegovina, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Uzbekistan and Turkey to accede to the Aarhus Convention and upon Ireland and Switzerland to ratify the Convention . It also calls for ratification of or accession to the GMO amendment and the PRTR Protocol by the Aarhus Parties. The Declaration stresses the need to maintain the Convention’s open and participatory character and requests the Parties to adopt Rules of Procedure and a Compliance Review Mechanism for the Protocol on PRTRs that follow the practice established by the Convention itself. The Declaration names a number of barriers confronted by NGOs in using the three pillars of the Convention. It underlines that the lack of effective access to justice remains the biggest concern. The Declaration requests the Parties to strengthen the compliance procedure, as well as to improve reporting practices ahead of the Riga MOP. It also supports the draft Long Term Strategy Plan as presented to the Working Group of the Parties in October 2007 and calls upon the Parties to refrain from any weakening of the Plan. The Vienna Declaration together with a list of supporting organisations will be sent to the Parties of the Aarhus Convention and used as a lobbying tool in the preparations for the upcoming Meeting of the Parties in Riga. The Vienna Declaration is available at: http://www.participate.org/documents/vienna-decl-final-version-201207-with-logos.pdf (in English) http://www.participate.org/documents/vienna-decl-rus-logo.pdf (in Russian) If you are willing to support the Vienna Declaration, please send an e-mail with your organisation's name and contact person before 1 February 2008 to: Mara Silina
2. EUWI - EECCA WORKING GROUP ME ETS IN MOSCOW The 10th meeting of the EUWI-EECCA Working Group took place in Moscow on 13 December 2007. The meeting brought together about 50 representatives of EECCA countries (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine), EU countries (Austria, Germany, Denmark, Romania, Finland and Czech Republic), as well as the European Commission, OECD, UNECE, EBRD, Global Water Partnership, non-governmental organisations (Ecores, Azerbaijan; Eco-T IRAS , Moldova; MAMA-86, Ukraine) and others. The aim of the meeting was to discuss the outcomes of activities in the framework of the EECCA component of the EU Water Initiative (EU WI) and to develop work plan for the year 2008. This was the last meeting under the leadership of the European Commission. Starting from 1 January 2008, Romania will lead the EUWI-EECCA . The participants discussed in detail the national policy dialogues (NPD). The NPDs are main instruments of the EUWI, which build on the initiative of an interested EECCA country. The UNECE (for integrated water resources management - IWRM) and OECD (for water supply and sanitation) are strategic partners for organization of the dialogues. The participants were briefed on the first outcomes of the NPDs in Moldova and Armenia. The Technical Secretariat informed the participants of the new applications for NPDs. Five official applications were received (from Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan). The preliminary assessment mission to Ukraine has paid its visit to the country to meet with interested stakeholders. It allowed identifying the major theme for the dialogue: IWRM in conditions of climate change. The preliminary assessment mission will visit Kyrgyzstan in March-April 2008. UNDP regional and country offices will be the new strategic partners in NPDs. Russia and Tajikistan have expressed their interest in holding NPDs. A separate session was devoted to the issue of funding for Water and Utilities Sector in EECCA countries. The participants supported the importance of identifying acceptable financial mechanisms (joint credits, credits on preferential terms, financial opportunities from new partnerships, grants, fees for connecting to the network, etc.) for Water and Utilities Sector in medium and small municipalities and rural areas. They stressed the need to develop this theme in the framework of NPDs in EECCA countries. The participants also discussed the issue of monitoring the outcomes of activities under the EUWI-EECCA. At the closing session, Mr. Gheorghe Constantin (Department of Water Resource Management, Romania) presented a workplan for 2008. It is planned to continue national dialogues and initiate new ones, as well as to identify new projects. The next meeting of the Working Group is planned for 19-20 May 2008 in Bucharest. Romania has a lot of expertise in implementing the Water Framework Directive and will promote its principles in EECCA countries. During the meeting, Germany came out with the initiative to hold a conference on EU WI for Central Asia at the end of January 2008. A guide on Available EC Instruments to the EECCA countries was also presented at the meeting. For more information contact:
3. WHO EUROPEAN MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE ON HEALTH SYSTEMS WILL TAKE PLACE IN ESTONIA The WHO European Ministerial Conference on Health Systems “Health Systems, Health and Wealth” will take place in Tallinn, Estonia, on 25-27 June 2008. It will bring together ministers of health from the 53 Member States in the WHO European Region. High-level delegations will be invited, as well as health systems partners, experts, observers and representatives of international and civil society organizations and the media. The Conference aims to place health systems high on the political agenda. Specifically it will:
The WHO Regional Office for Europe will present two background studies, one on health systems as a key to both health and wealth, and the other on performance measurement as a central tool to improve health systems. For more information go to http://www.euro.who.int/healthsystems2008
4. SECTOR SECOND ROUND OF REGIONAL GRANTS The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, on
behalf of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, is
opening a second round of regional grants under the SECTOR programme, which
addresses environmental and sustainable urban development problems. Source : www.rec.org
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