RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE
REVIEW PROGRAMME
Adopted by the Fifth Ministerial Conference "Environment for Europe"
(a) The process of Environmental Performance Reviews should continue,
taking into account the experience from the first ten years. Countries
and organizations are encouraged to make broader use and support wider
dissemination of the Reviews, through, for example, press conferences,
or by bringing the reports to the attention of staff of embassies, national
aid organizations, all relevant ministries, departments and institutes
within the country and national information centres;
(b) The first round of reviews should be completed and the second
round proceed. All countries that are member States of UNECE
but not members of OECD are eligible for first and second reviews;
(c) The second Environmental Performance Reviews should measure
progress made in implementation, including implementation of the recommendations
from the first review, using a relevant set of indicators;
(d) The second Reviews should focus more on issues of implementation.
With the most dynamic legislative phase of the early transition over,
the future EPRs should devote more attention to performance in implementation
of the national policy targets, national legislation, best practices,
and international commitments, such as conventions and regional strategies.
This could be valuable for the further development of international instruments;
(e) The second Reviews should remain flexible and focus on the
priorities of the countries, including, in particular, new concerns that
have arisen;
(f) The second Reviews should examine issues of financing.
This would include, for example, the generation and allocation of public
domestic financing for the environment; the position of environmental
funds; the use of economic instruments; funds derived from the private
sector; donor support; and foreign direct investment, as well as an assessment
of the cost-effectiveness of environmental policy measures;
(g) The second Reviews should give greater emphasis to the integration
of the environment with other sectors at all decision-making levels and
to its socio-economic interface. In this regard, the Reviews
should further assess how environmental issues could be viewed comprehensively
and in an integrated manner. This could assist countries, inter alia,
to implement decisions taken at the fifth Ministerial Conference "Environment
for Europe" and the Johannesburg World Summit and to meet the Millennium
Development Goals. They should also assess environmental issues in the
context of environmental democracy, environmental justice and poverty
eradication, among other critical economic and social concerns common
to all countries;
(h) The second Reviews should make maximum use of existing data.
The first reviews have dedicated considerable resources to collecting
and assessing data that have not been available outside the country or
in electronic format. Many countries in transition have now had an opportunity
to strengthen their monitoring and reporting systems and are providers
of data to, for example, the European Environment Agency. UNECE should
work in close cooperation with these and other organizations to maximize
efficiency;
(i) Cooperation with the Environmental Performance Review programme
of OECD should be continued and strengthened;
(j) Reviewed countries could provide an interim report to the
Committee on Environmental Policy on implementation of first Review recommendations
within three years of the conclusion of their first Review.