Second Amendment to the Convention
At its third meeting, the Meeting of the Parties decided to amend the Convention as set out below.
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Authentic text of the Second Amendment |
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German version of the Second Amendment (developed by Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechenstein) |
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First Amendment |
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DECISION III/7
SECOND AMENDMENT TO THE ESPOO
CONVENTION
The Meeting,
Recalling its decision II/10 on the review
of the Convention and paragraph 19 of the Sofia
Ministerial Declaration,
Wishing to modify the Convention with
a view to further strengthening its application
and improving synergies with other multilateral
environmental agreements,
Commending the work done by the task force
established at the second meeting of Parties, by
the small group on amendments and by the Working
Group on Environmental Impact Assessment itself,
Noting the Convention on Access to Information,
Public Participation in Decision-making and Access
to Justice in Environmental Matters, done at Aarhus,
Denmark, on 25 June 1998, and recalling the Protocol
on Strategic Environmental Assessment, done at Kyiv,
Ukraine, on 21 May 2003,
Also noting relevant European Community
legal instruments, such as directive 85/337/EEC
of 27 June 1985 on the assessment of the effects
of certain public and private projects on the environment,
as amended by directives 97/11/EC and 2003/35/EC,
Conscious that an extension of Appendix
I will strengthen the importance of environmental
impact assessments in the region,
Recognizing the benefits of international
cooperation as early as possible in the assessment
of environmental impact,
Encouraging the work of the Implementation
Committee as a useful tool for the further implementation
and application of the provisions of the Convention,
1. Confirms that the validity of decisions
taken prior to the entry into force of the second
amendment to the Convention, including the adoption
of protocols, the establishment of subsidiary bodies,
the review of compliance and actions taken by the
Implementation Committee, are not affected by the
adoption and entry into force of this amendment;
2. Also confirms that each Party shall
continue to be eligible to participate in all activities
under the Convention, including the preparation
of protocols, the establishment and participation
in subsidiary bodies, and the review of compliance,
regardless of whether the second amendment to the
Convention has entered into force for that Party
or not;
3. Adopts the following amendments to
the Convention:
(a) In Article 2, after paragraph 10, insert a
new paragraph reading
11. If the Party of origin intends to carry out
a procedure for the purposes of determining the
content of the environmental impact assessment
documentation, the affected Party should to the
extent appropriate be given the opportunity to
participate in this procedure.
(b) In Article 8, after Convention
insert
and under any of its protocols to which they
are a Party
(c) In Article 11, replace paragraph 2 (c) by a
new subparagraph reading
(c) Seek, where appropriate, the services and
cooperation of competent bodies having expertise
pertinent to the achievement of the purposes of
this Convention;
(d) At the end of Article 11, insert two new subparagraphs
reading
(g) Prepare, where appropriate, protocols to
this Convention;
(h) Establish such subsidiary bodies as they
consider necessary for the implementation of this
Convention.
(e) In Article 14, paragraph 4, replace the second
sentence by a new sentence reading
They shall enter into force for Parties having
ratified, approved or accepted them on the ninetieth
day after the receipt by the Depositary of notification
of their ratification, approval or acceptance
by at least three fourths of the number of Parties
at the time of their adoption.
(f) After Article 14, insert a new article reading
Article 14 bis
Review of compliance
1. The Parties shall review compliance with the
provisions of this Convention on the basis of
the compliance procedure, as a non-adversarial
and assistance-oriented procedure adopted by the
Meeting of the Parties. The review shall be based
on, but not limited to, regular reporting by the
Parties. The Meeting of Parties shall decide on
the frequency of regular reporting required by
the Parties and the information to be included
in those regular reports.
2. The compliance procedure shall be available
for application to any protocol adopted under
this Convention.
(g) Replace Appendix I to the Convention by the
Appendix to this decision;
(h) In Appendix VI, after paragraph 2, insert a
new paragraph reading
3. Paragraphs 1 and 2 may be applied, mutatis
mutandis, to any protocol to the Convention.
Appendix
LIST OF ACTIVITIES
1. Crude oil refineries (excluding undertakings
manufacturing only lubricants from crude oil) and
installations for the gasification and liquefaction
of 500 metric tons or more of coal or bituminous
shale per day.
2. (a) Thermal power stations and other combustion
installations with a heat output of 300 megawatts
or more, and
(b) Nuclear power stations and other nuclear reactors,
including the dismantling or decommissioning of
such power stations or reactors 1/ (except research
installations for the production and conversion
of fissionable and fertile materials, whose maximum
power does not exceed 1 kilowatt continuous thermal
load).
3. (a) Installations for the reprocessing of irradiated
nuclear fuel;
(b) Installations designed:
- For the production or enrichment of nuclear fuel;
- For the processing of irradiated nuclear fuel
or high-level radioactive waste;
- For the final disposal of irradiated nuclear fuel;
- Solely for the final disposal of radioactive waste;
or
- Solely for the storage (planned for more than
10 years) of irradiated nuclear fuels or radioactive
waste in a different site than the production site.
4. Major installations for the initial smelting
of cast iron and steel and for the production of
non-ferrous metals.
5. Installations for the extraction of asbestos
and for the processing and transformation of asbestos
and products containing asbestos: for asbestos-cement
products, with an annual production of more than
20,000 metric tons finished product; for friction
material, with an annual production of more than
50 metric tons finished product; and for other asbestos
utilization of more than 200 metric tons per year.
6. Integrated chemical installations.
7. (a) Construction of motorways, express roads
2/ and lines for long-distance railway traffic and
of airports 3/ with a basic runway length of 2,100
metres or more;
(b) Construction of a new road of four or more lanes,
or realignment and/or widening of an existing road
of two lanes or less so as to provide four or more
lanes, where such new road, or realigned and/or
widened section of road, would be 10 km or more
in a continuous length.
8. Large-diameter pipelines for the transport of
oil, gas or chemicals.
9. Trading ports and also inland waterways and
ports for inland-waterway traffic which permit the
passage of vessels of over 1,350 metric tons.
10. (a) Waste-disposal installations for the incineration,
chemical treatment or landfill of toxic and dangerous
wastes;
(b) Waste-disposal installations for the incineration
or chemical treatment of non-hazardous waste with
a capacity exceeding 100 metric tons per day.
11. Large dams and reservoirs.
12. Groundwater abstraction activities or artificial
groundwater recharge schemes where the annual volume
of water to be abstracted or recharged amounts to
10 million cubic metres or more.
13. Pulp, paper and board manufacturing of 200
air-dried metric tons or more per day.
14. Major quarries, mining, on-site extraction
and processing of metal ores or coal.
15. Offshore hydrocarbon production. Extraction
of petroleum and natural gas for commercial purposes
where the amount extracted exceeds 500 metric tons/day
in the case of petroleum and 500 000 cubic metres/day
in the case of gas.
16. Major storage facilities for petroleum, petrochemical
and chemical products.
17. Deforestation of large areas.
18. (a) Works for the transfer of water resources
between river basins where this transfer aims at
preventing possible shortages of water and where
the amount of water transferred exceeds 100 million
cubic metres/year; and
(b) In all other cases, works for the transfer of
water resources between river basins where the multi-annual
average flow of the basin of abstraction exceeds
2 000 million cubic metres/year and where the amount
of water transferred exceeds 5 per cent of this
flow.
In both cases transfers of piped drinking water
are excluded.
19. Waste-water treatment plants with a capacity
exceeding 150 000 population equivalent.
20. Installations for the intensive rearing of
poultry or pigs with more than:
- 85 000 places for broilers;
- 60 000 places for hens;
- 3 000 places for production pigs (over 30 kg);
or
- 900 places for sows.
21. Construction of overhead electrical power lines
with a voltage of 220 kV or more and a length of
more than 15 km.
22. Major installations for the harnessing of wind
power for energy production (wind farms).
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1/ For the purposes of this Convention, nuclear
power stations and other nuclear reactors cease
to be such an installation when all nuclear fuel
and other radioactively contaminated elements have
been removed permanently from the installation site.
2/ For the purposes of this Convention:
- "Motorway" means a road specially designed
and built for motor traffic, which does not serve
properties bordering on it, and which:
(a) Is provided, except at special points or temporarily,
with separate carriageways for the two directions
of traffic, separated from each other by a dividing
strip not intended for traffic or, exceptionally,
by other means;
(b) Does not cross at level with any road, railway
or tramway track, or footpath; and
(c) Is specially signposted as a motorway.
- "Express road" means a road reserved
for motor traffic accessible only from interchanges
or controlled junctions and on which, in particular,
stopping and parking are prohibited on the running
carriageway(s).
3/ For the purposes of this Convention, "airport"
means an airport which complies with the definition
in the 1944 Chicago Convention setting up the International
Civil Aviation Organization (annex 14).