Ministers’ Deputies
Notes on the Agenda
CM/Notes/822/9.1 (restricted) 13 November 2002
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822 Meeting, 18 December 2002
9 Sustainable development
9.1 Contribution of the Council of Europe to the fifth Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe”
(Kyiv, Ukraine 21-23 May 2003)
Reference documents
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Action Take note of the contribution under preparation of the Council of Europe to the fifth Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe” (Kyiv, Ukraine 21-23 May 2003). |
Background
At the Third Ministerial Conference "Environment for Europe" held in Sofia in October 1995, the Environment Ministers of 54 countries endorsed the Pan‑European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (PEBLDS) that had been sent to them by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and welcomed the readiness of the Council of Europe and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to establish appropriate mechanisms in order to guide and co‑ordinate the implementation and further development of the Strategy.
The actions to implement the Pan-European Strategy are being conducted in the geographical framework of the 55 member states of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), under the responsibility of the Council of Europe and UNEP, which provide the joint secretariat.
The PEBLDS was intended to be a European regional response to support the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (Rio de Janeiro, 1992). Being an integral part of the "Environment for Europe", the Pan‑European Strategy supports and facilitates this ministerial process, sets its biodiversity agenda and provides an interface between "Environment for Europe", the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and other regional and global biodiversity processes.
State of preparation of the Fifth Conference of Ministers for the Environment
The preparations for the Fifth Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe”, led by the Government of Ukraine and serviced by the Secretariat of UNECE, are well underway. The Conference will be held in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 21-23 May 2003. One of the Conference's main objectives is the implementation in Europe of the Action Plan of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, September 2002).
All main topics of the Kyiv Conference are of relevance and importance for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. The biodiversity session of the Conference will be held under the overall umbrella of the PEBLDS, which has been attending the preparatory meetings of the ad hoc Working Group of Senior Officials “Environment for Europe”, also has prepared regional inputs and relevant documents for the Conference.
The main PEBLDS political document to be submitted for discussion and endorsement by the Ministers for the Environment in Kyiv will be the Resolution on biodiversity: Regional implementation of the biodiversity targets of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development and the integration of biodiversity into sectoral policies.
Several other background documents of direct relevance to the Kyiv Agenda will be submitted as the Council of Europe’s contribution to the Conference. For instance:
- Code of Practice for the Introduction of Biological and Landscape Considerations into the Transport Sector;
- Declaration on the Pan-European Ecological Network;
- Declaration of the Pan-European High-level Conference on Agriculture and Biodiversity;
- European Landscape Convention and its follow-up;
- Guiding Principles for sustainable spatial development of the European continent and its follow-up.
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Financing assured: YES |
DRAFT DECISION
822th meeting – 18 December 2002
Item 9.1
Contribution of the Council of Europe to the fifth Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe”
(Kyiv, Ukraine 21-23 May 2003)
Decision
The Deputies took note of the contribution under preparation of the Council of Europe to the fifth Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe” (Kyiv, Ukraine 21-23 May 2003).