On Thursday 17 March in Brussels, the Environment Ministers of the EU Member States agreed on the position that the European Union will defend at the second segment of the fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 4.2) to the Minamata Convention on mercury, which will be held from 21 to 25 March 2022 in Bali, Indonesia.
Several decisions were adopted to this end, without debate, by the EU Environment Council.
The Minamata Convention provides a framework for controlling and limiting the use of mercury and its compounds and anthropogenic emissions, as well as the discharges of these substances. In Bali, the parties to the Convention are to negotiate further restrictions on the use of and trade in this heavy metal, which is highly toxic to human health and the environment.
The first EU Council decision concerns the amendment of Annex A of the Convention to extend its scope to additional products containing added mercury, including certain types of lamps (see EUROPE 12673/8). A ban on these types of lamps is included in the position that the EU will defend.
This EU Council decision also concerns the amendment of Annex B to set a final phase-out date for a mercury-based process covered by that Annex.
The second decision concerns the thresholds for mercury waste. It aims to define more precisely the scope of the waste provisions, particularly Article 11, paragraph 3 of the Convention concerning the obligation to treat the mercury waste concerned in accordance with the principle of environmentally sound management.
Furthermore, the EU Council agreed that at the opening of COP 4.2, the EU and its Member States will condemn Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine - a condemnation reiterated in all international fora, regardless of the subject matter.
The EU Council decisions and the opening statement have not been made public on the EU Council website. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)