Guidelines could ensure better international cooperation, by Stephen Stec UN proposes fix for Europe ’s multilateral environmental agreements Photo: SERGIU SERBAN HIGH-LEVEL:The Carpathian Mountains are among the natural areas protected by multilateral environmental agreements. A package of guidelines to be unveiled at the upcoming environmental conference in Kiev could improve compliance with multilateral environmental agreements throughout Europe. The guidelines were adopted by the Committee on Environmental Policy of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe at a special session in February. They will be presented for adoption at the Kiev ministerial meeting in May on the Environment for Europe process. The guidelines identify obstacles to national implementation and compliance, but more importantly they point out ways to do this in the early stages, even at the time of negotiation. The guidelines refer to matters that should be considered in the formulation of specific legal obligations. In planning how to meet their international obligations, states should review each obligation, identify those responsible for implementation, make necessary administrative arrangements, secure funding, provide for enforcement, engage the public and the regulated community, and monitor and learn from implementation. The guidelines build on previous efforts by elaborating the principles behind the development of reporting obligations of state parties to multilateral international agreements. They emphasise the role of reporting in assessing compliance, disseminating information and gaining feedback. Suggestions for structuring reporting and for the inclusion of specific elements, as well as ways to ensure accurate, complete and effective reporting, are included in the package. While the name of the task force that drafted the document included "compliance and enforcement" the final title of the guidelines refers to "compliance and implementation." These terms have different meanings depending on whether one talks about international obligations of states or about measures taken on the national level to meet these obligations. The task force employed a definition of enforcement relevant to imposing obligations on industry on the national level, and concluded that it was covered by the term "implementation." The guidelines, addressed to ministers, governments, environmental organisations, public authorities, the international environmental community and the public, relate to compliance with and implementation of multilateral agreements relevant to the Economic Commission for Europe region, and primarily conventions of that commission. These include the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters; the Espoo Convention on Transboundary EIA; the Convention on Long- Range Transboundary Air Pollution; the Helsinki Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes; and the Convention on Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents; and their protocols. It took about 16 months during 2001 and 2002 for the task force to work out the package. Assistance came from experts from 26 ECE member states as well as representatives of the United Nations Environment Programme, the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe and the European Ecoforum. Their development was coordinated with that of the global guidelines of the United Nations Environment Programme, which were adopted in 2002. The full text of the "Guidelines for Strengthening Compliance with and Implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements in the Economic Commission for Europe Region" (document CEP/2003/7) is available from the UNECE Secretariat. Contact: albena.karadjova@unece.org. — Stephen Stec is the Head of the Environmental Law Programme at the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe

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