Brussels, 02/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - The EU and Russia will sign a cooperation agreement on environmental protection at the first meeting of the EU-Russia, Permanent Partnership Council, at environment minister level, in Helsinki on 9-10 October. This agreement will establish the principles and aims of the future cooperation, and the concrete conditions of work for the experts from both sides, says a memorandum from the Presidency. Hitherto, cooperation between the EU and Russia has been governed by Article 69 of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), due to expire at the end of 2007. Under the terms of this Article, cooperation covers varied areas, such as effective monitoring of pollution and environmental assessment, combating local, regional and cross-border air and water pollution, classification of chemical substances, waste recycling, protection of forests and preserving biodiversity. The PCA also provides for close cooperation between Moscow and Brussels in disaster warnings and other emergency situations, research and environmental impact studies. It also covers environmental cooperation - particularly on climate change and the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol - in the “economic area”, one of the four areas that the EU and Russia have decided to create over the last few years.
The new cooperation agreement, which will be signed on 10 October, will strengthen this cooperation and respond to new concerns, such as the possibility of accidents related to gas transport in the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea, Finnish environment minister, and current President of the EU Council Jan-Erik Enestam said recently (see EUROPE 9194).
Other principal topics to be discussed at the Permanent Partnership Council are climate change, protection of biodiversity and relations between the environment and economic development. The EU will be represented by Mr Enestam, Commissioner Stavros Dimas and German secretary of state of the environment Matthias Machnig (forthcoming Presidency). The Russian delegation will be led by natural resources minister Yuri Troutnev. (hb)