"ENVIRONMENT FOR EUROPE" PROCESS
Ad Hoc Preparatory Working Group of Senior Officials
The Working Group of Senior Officials (WGSO) is an intergovernmental group created for the express purpose of preparing for upcoming Ministerial Conferences "Environment for Europe" and for coordinating the follow-up response. Each Working Group of Senior Officials is established by the UNECE Committee on Environmental Policy upon the recommendations of the Ministerial Conferences.
The Working Group of Senior Officials is open to participation of all member States of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. In addition, the Chairpersons of the following are invited as observers:
The Chair of the WGSO has traditionally been chosen from the host country of the next Conference.
The UNECE serves as secretariat to the WGSO.
On the recommendation of the Ministers at the Second Ministerial Conference, in Lucerne, Switzerland, the first WGSO was established in 1993, and, on the recommendation of the Ministers at the Third Ministerial Conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, the second was established in 1996.
The third WGSO was established in 1999, on the recommendation of the Ministers at the Fourth Ministerial Conference, in Aarhus, Denmark. The fourth WGSO was established in 2004 on the recommendation of the Ministers at their Fifth Ministerial Conference, in Kiev, Ukraine, to prepare the Belgrade Ministerial Conference. The Working Group meets as often as necessary and keeps the Committee on Environmental Policy informed of its progress.
The Executive Committee of the Working Group of Senior Officials
Terms of reference of the Ad Hoc Preparatory Working Group of Senior Officials call for the establishment of an Executive Committee which will serve as the Bureau of the Working Group. At this time the Executive Committee is composed of representatives of eight UNECE member States, including one from South-Eastern Europe (the host country); two from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, one from North America and four from other UNECE member States.
The Working Group also invites participation in the Executive Committee from: the Chair of the UNECE Committee on Environmental Policy, one of the co-Chairs of the OECD Task Force for the Implementation of the Environmental Action Programme (EAP Task Force), the Chair of the Project Preparation Committee (PPC), and the Chair of the Council for the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy; a representative of the Presidency of the European Union, a senior representative of the European Commission, a senior representative of EcoForum and one senior representative from the regional environmental centres.
The Executive Committee is chaired by the host country and the secretariat services are provided by UNECE. The Executive Committee may invite other organizations to participate in the preparations pending a decision on the theme of an upcoming Conference.
Partner Organisations
As has been the practice for previous Conference preparations, the Working Group will work in close cooperation with:
The WGSO also cooperates with: