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| EUROPEAN ECO FORUM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Geneva, 18 March 1998 - A meeting of the UNECE (1) Committee on Environmental Policy (CEP), which ended today, endorsed the draft text of a new international law to increase government accountability and transparency in environmental matters. The draft Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters will now be forwarded to Environment Ministers for adoption and signing at the Fourth Ministerial "Environment for Europe" Conference, to be held in June 1998, in the Danish town of Aarhus. Representatives of Environmental Citizens' Organisations (ECOs) participating in the CEP meeting gave a mixed reaction to the draft text of the Convention, which is the result of 21 months of tough negotiations. On the one hand, ECOs welcomed the concept of the Convention as an important step forward in international law, with potentially significant implications for both the environment and democracy. They acknowledged that many issues raised by ECOs were taken up, albeit inadequately, in the draft text. On the other hand, ECOs expressed their disappointment at the number of loopholes, qualifiers and exemptions littering the text. Examples include: wide exemptions to the access to information provisions; weak obligations on governments to provide for public participation in decisions on policies, plans, programmes and legislation; excessive discretion given to governments to determine who should have access to the courts to challenge breaches of environmental law. However, ECOs reserved their strongest criticism for the absence of an effective compliance mechanism, which would help to ensure that governments implement the provisions of the Convention. During the CEP meeting, several governments conceded that this was a major weakness, but preferred to address this deficiency through the non-binding Ministerial Resolution, which will accompany the adopting of the Convention, rather than amend the text of the Convention itself. ECOs expressed their frustration at the obstructive role played by Russia and Turkey in blocking any effective compliance provisions. "These two countries have succeeded in dragging this provision down to the point where it is virtually worthless", said Jeremy Wates, head of the ECO delegation to the negotiations. He added, "It is as if these countries are already afraid of their performance under this Convention being open to public scrutiny". The ECO delegation was also particularly critical of governments' failure (2) to commit themselves to addressing the issue of contained use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) during the first meeting of the Parties to the Convention. (1) The UN ECE region covers Western and Eastern Europe, Central Asian Republics, US, Canada and Israel (2) Only Norway and Poland supported the ECO position. Denmark, having initially supported strong provisions on GMOs, was effectively muzzled following an EU co-ordination meeting. For Further Information (until Friday night, 20 March): mara.silina@foeeurope.org - Public Participation Campaign - webmaster |
