The Sixth Ministerial Conference "Environment for Europe"
Belgrade, 10-12 October 2007
“Building Bridges to the Future”
The Drafting Group for preparing the Ministerial Declaration
Meetings of the Drafting Group
At its second meeting the WGSO agreed to have a short Ministerial Declaration and a Chair’s Summary as the Conference’s major outcomes. The WGSO also agreed that the Declaration should focus on a limited number of issues to be identified in accordance with the Conference agenda. At its third meeting the WGSO approved the framework of the Ministerial Declaration and established an open-ended Drafting Group for preparing the Declaration.
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The third meeting of the Drafting Group took place in Geneva on 29 (p.m.) - 31 August 2007 back-to-back to the fifth meeting of the WGSO that took place on 29 (a.m.) August 2007. It resumed its work on the draft declaration (En / Fr / Ru)
and produced a revised text (En /Fr/ Ru) that was finalised by WGSO at its sixth meeting held in Belgrade on 6-8 October 2007.
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The second meeting of the Drafting Group took place in Geneva on 2-3 July 2007 It started drafting the text of the declaration on the basis of the first draft prepared by the secretariat. A draft note by the secretariat about the future of the "Environment for Europe" process was circulated at the meeting. The revised note was intended for submission to the fifth meeting of the WGSO.
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The first meeting of the Drafting Group was held in Geneva on 15-16 February 2007. Following the decision by the WGSO and the request from the Executive Committee, the secretariat has prepared the first draft of possible elements for the Draft Declaration of the Belgrade Ministerial Conference for the Executive Committee’s fifth meeting (14-15(a.m.) February 2007) and the subsequent first meeting of the Drafting Group. The Drafting Group considered the draft of possible elements for the Ministerial Declaration and suggested a number of additional issues for inclusion. It invited delegations to submit comments on the revised document with possible elements for the Ministerial Declaration that was circulated at the end of the meeting 
. The received comments are uploaded hereunder. 
| Comments by: |
En |
| Norway |
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| Switzerland |
 |
| EU and United Kingdom (annex to the EU comments) |
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| the Bureau of the UNECE Steering Committee on Education for Sustainable Development |
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| the
PPC, EAP Task Force, World Bank and REC-CEE |
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| CAREC |
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| European ECO-Forum |
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| SEE Regional Civil Societies |
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Distribution of meeting documents
We would like to inform you that in order to save paper and make the process of distributing documentation more efficient, the secretariat will not provide hard copies of meeting documents in the meeting room (exceptions will be made for meeting discussion documents prepared during or shortly before meetings).
All relevant documents prepared by or submitted to the secretariat are posted on the website. In addition, the WGSO official documents are available at the UNECE documents distribution centre (room C337, 3rd floor of the Palais des Nations, near the Delegates’ Lounge). Therefore, we kindly ask you to bring with you all documents that you need for work during meetings, including reference documents and documents circulated specifically for meetings of the WGSO, the EXECOM and the Drafting Group. Participants wishing to distribute papers relevant to meetings are requested to bring the needed number of copies. We thank you very much and count on your support and understanding.
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Registration for the meetings
According to the current accreditation procedures, all delegates attending meetings at the Palais des Nations are requested to fill in a registration form in English. Delegates who do not have a badge for entry in the Palais des Nations have to present themselves before the meeting at the Security and Safety Section's Pass and Identification Unit to receive their identification badge. Please note that as of 1st June 2006 the Unit is located at the Pregny Gate, 14 Avenue de la Paix (in front of the International Committee of the Red Cross). It is open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m to 5 p.m.
Please complete the Registration Form and send it to Fax: (+41) 22 917-0107 or e-mail: efe@unece.org as soon as possible, but no later than three weeks before the beginning of the meeting. You are requested to bring with you the original registration form, which you will have to show when Security gives you your badge, as the secretariat will only have a copy.
Practical Information for the delegates
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