Adopts Measures on Work of Subsidiary Bodies; Transport, Environment
and Health; Intersectoral Work; Implementation of Millennium Declaration

Geneva, 11 May 2001

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) concluded this afternoon a week-long annual session by acting on matters arising from its principal subsidiary bodies and from discussions held earlier in the week on the topics of transport, environment and health; intersectoral approaches to environment, energy and transport; implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration; and the Commission's annual spring seminar.

On the subject of transport, environment and health, the Commission decided, among other things, that further preparatory work to be able to decide whether to start negotiations on a framework convention on the subject, including the specific task of identifying the possible elements of such an instrument, should be carried out at the international level by a tripartite task force to be established within the framework of the London and Vienna follow-up processes as soon as possible.

In relation to intersectoral approaches to environment, energy and transport, the Commission, through the adoption of relevant paragraphs in its report of the annual session, expressed the opinion that, among other things, for intersectoral cooperation to be successful, participation of all sectors concerned on an equal footing and with the right balance was required; that the vast difference in the stages of development of ECE countries meant that preoccupation with national development programmes in some countries prevented them from being sufficiently conscious of the need to address the negative impacts of sectoral activities through an intersectoral approach; expressed support for the initiative jointly agreed by the Committee on Environmental Policy and the Committee on Sustainable Energy in creating the task force on guidelines on energy pricing which could greatly contribute to addressing the issues of energy market liberalization and harmonization of energy taxes; and expressed support for the "blue corridor" project as a way to promote environmentally friendly transport of goods in a major east-west pan-European corridor and because of its potential replication for other main arteries in Europe.

On the matter of follow-up to the United Nations Millennium Declaration, the Commission decided, through the adoption of relevant paragraphs of its report of the annual session, to carry out annual reviews of the concerns of the Declaration as they applied to the ECE and the work of its principal subsidiary bodies; noted that it may occasionally devote one of its seminars to one of the policy concerns of the Millennium Declaration; decided to hold a dialogue with relevant stakeholders -- such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), representatives of academia, and the business community -- to raise awareness and promote public-private partnerships in support of follow-up to the Declaration; and decided to promote coordinated initiatives for joint follow-up to the Declaration through inter-agency cooperation.

The Commission also chose officers for the coming year. Harald Kreid (Austria) was re-elected Chairman, and Vice-Chairpersons Amiran Kavadze (Georgia) and Yaakov Levy (Israel) agreed to new terms. Vice-Chairperson Spomenka Cek (Croatia) finished her service with the Bureau, and Kálmán Petöcz (Slovakia) accepted election to replace her.

Matters arising from the work of subsidiary bodies

The Commission took action on the recommendations of a high-level meeting on the subject of transport, environment and health in which it concurred, among other things, that further preparatory work to be able to decide whether to start negotiations on a framework convention on transport, environment and health, including the specific task of identifying the possible elements of such an instrument, should be carried out at the international level by a tripartite task force to be established within the framework of the London and Vienna follow-up processes, as soon as possible. NGOs and other stakeholders would be invited as observers to meetings of this task force, and a progress report on the tripartite process would be submitted to regional ministerial meetings such as the regional preparatory meeting for the Johannesburg Summit in September 2001. Further decisions on the matter would be taken at the second High-Level Meeting on transport, environment and health to be convened in 2002 prior to the Johannesburg Summit.

The Commission also took note of four conference-room papers prepared for the general information of delegations at the annual session.

Other action

On the topic of intersectoral approaches to environment, energy and transport, the Commission, through the adoption of relevant paragraphs of its report of the annual session, expressed the opinion that, among other things, for intersectoral cooperation on the matter to be successful, participation of all sectors concerned on an equal footing and with the right balance was required; that the vast difference in the stages of development of ECE countries meant that preoccupation with national development programmes in some countries prevented them from being sufficiently conscious of the need to address the negative impacts of sectoral activities through an intersectoral approach, and that where value added was clearly seen, the willingness of organizational units participating in intersectoral cooperation should be counted upon. The Commission expressed support for the initiative jointly agreed by the Committee on Environmental Policy and the Committee on Sustainable Energy in creating the task force on guidelines on energy pricing which could greatly contribute to addressing the issues of energy market liberalization and harmonization of energy taxes; expressed support for the "blue corridor" project as a way to promote environmentally friendly transport of goods in a major east-west pan-European corridor and because of its potential replication for other main arteries in Europe, and requested the Committee on Sustainable Energy and the Inland Transport Committee to go forward with the project. The Commission also invited its principal subsidiary bodies to further develop intersectoral linkages in various areas, including border-crossing and trade facilitation work on customs standards and procedures; development of land registration systems and promotion of real estate markets; trade, timber and the environment for promoting trade of timber and timber products while ensuring sustainable management of forests; energy and transport, in particular environmental performance reviews and ECE environmental conventions as they pertained to the energy and transport sectors; and consolidation of existing ECE databases into a multi-sectoral framework.

The Commission also decided, through the adoption of relevant paragraphs of its report of the annual session and in response to its discussion of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, to carry out annual reviews of the concerns of the Declaration as they applied to the ECE and on the work of its principal subsidiary bodies as they related to the topic; noted that it may occasionally devote one of its seminars to one of the policy concerns of the Millennium Declaration; invited ECE principal subsidiary bodies to consider what contributions they could make to the implementation process, and to integrate the concerns of the Declaration into their programmes of work; decided to invite the executive bodies of ECE Environmental Conventions to report on progress made in relation to the objectives of the Declaration; decided to hold a dialogue with relevant stakeholders -- such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), representatives of academia, and the business community -- to raise awareness and promote public-private partnerships in support of follow-up to the Declaration; decided to promote coordinated initiatives for joint follow-up to the Declaration through inter-agency cooperation; and decided to promote information-sharing and better communication on the policies undertaken at national and regional levels for implementing the Declaration, with a view to stimulating the effectiveness of the peer-pressure mechanism and public awareness.

On the topic of reaction to the ECE spring seminar, the Commission decided, through the adoption of relevant paragraphs of its report of the annual session, to discuss the ECE's operational activities, with particular attention devoted to countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), during a forthcoming ad hoc informal meeting.

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