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OSPAR
The Convention for the
Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (the “OSPAR
Convention”) was opened for signature at the Ministerial Meeting of the
Oslo and Paris Commissions in Paris on 22 September 1992.
The Convention has been signed
and ratified by all of the Contracting Parties to the original
Oslo or Paris Conventions (Belgium, Denmark, the European Community, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland) and by Luxembourg and Switzerland.
The OSPAR Convention entered
into force on 25 March 1998. It replaces the
Oslo and Paris Conventions, but Decisions, Recommendations
and all other agreements adopted under those Conventions will continue to
be applicable, unaltered in their legal nature, unless they are terminated
by new measures adopted under the 1992 OSPAR Convention.
The first Ministerial Meeting of
the OSPAR Commission at
Sintra, Portugal, in 1998 adopted Annex V to the Convention, to extend
the cooperation of the Contracting Parties to cover all human activities
that might adversely affect the marine environment of the North East
Atlantic. Nevertheless, programmes and measures cannot be adopted under the
Convention on questions relating to fisheries management.
In 2000, to fulfil obligations
under Annex IV to the OSPAR Convention, the OSPAR Commission published the
first comprehensive Quality Status Report on the quality of the marine
environment of the
North-East Atlantic. This was supported by five reports on the different
parts of the OSPAR maritime area – the Arctic, the Greater North Sea, the Celtic
Seas, the Bay of Biscay/Golfe de Gascogne and Iberian
waters, and the Wider Atlantic.
The
Oslo and
Paris Commissions
The Oslo Commission was
established to administer the Oslo Convention. Initially, the Commission's
task was to regulate and control the dumping at sea of industrial wastes,
sewage sludge and dredged material and the incineration at sea of liquid
industrial wastes. The dumping of industrial wastes and sewage sludge and
incineration at sea have now been phased out.
The Paris Commission was
established to administer the Paris Convention. The Commission regulated
and controlled inputs of substances and energy to the sea from land-based
sources (via the atmosphere, rivers, or direct discharges) and also from
offshore platforms. The Commission was involved in a thorough review of the
use and manufacture of various substances in order to establish the best
environmental practice or best available techniques to prevent pollution.
It also embarked on a series of measures to protect parts of the Convention
area affected by high levels of nutrients, which have been linked to the
occurrence of abnormal algal blooms.
The OSPAR
Convention
A meeting of the
Oslo and Paris Commissions at Ministerial level was held in
Paris on 21-22 September 1992 (MMC 1992). This meeting was
attended by Ministers responsible for the marine environment of the 14
signatory states to the Oslo and Paris Conventions, by Switzerland and by a representative of the Commission of the
European Communities. The most important outcome of this Ministerial
meeting was the adoption of a new Convention for the Protection of the
Marine Environment of the North-East
Atlantic (the "OSPAR
Convention"), together with a Final Declaration and an Action Plan to
guide the future work of the Commissions.
Although the OSPAR Convention
did not finally enter into force until early 1998, for all practical
purposes, the
Oslo and Paris Commissions have worked as one entity since
MMC 1992.
The new Convention, drafted to
merge and modernise the
Oslo and Paris Conventions, consists of a series of
provisions and, amongst other things:
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requires the application of:
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the precautionary principle;
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the polluter pays principle;
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best available techniques (BAT) and
best environmental practice (BEP), including clean technology;
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provides for the Commission established by
the OSPAR Convention to adopt binding decisions;
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provides for the participation of observers,
including non-governmental organisations, in the work of the
Commission;
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establishes rights of access to information
about the maritime area of the Convention.
Contained within the OSPAR
Convention, as adopted in 1992, are a series of Annexes which deal with the
following specific areas:
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Annex I: Prevention and elimination of
pollution from land-based sources;
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Annex II: Prevention and elimination of
pollution by dumping or incineration;
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Annex III: Prevention and elimination of
pollution from offshore sources; and
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Annex IV: Assessment of the quality of the
marine environment.
The Convention also allows the
adoption of additional annexes to protect the maritime area of the
Convention, and the first new annex was adopted by the 1998 Ministerial
Meeting of the OSPAR Commission (MMC 1998). This Annex V contains
provisions with regard to the protection and conservation of the ecosystems
and biological diversity of the maritime area. The Annex will enter into
force once it has been ratified by at least seven Contracting Parties.
The Convention finally also
establishes the OSPAR Commission, as successor to the
Oslo and
Paris Commissions, to administer the Convention and to develop policy and
international agreements in this field. The Commission is supported by an
international secretariat based in London.
The 1998 Ministerial Meeting of
the OSPAR Commission adopted strategies to direct its future work in the
following four main areas:
a. protection and conservation
of ecosystems and biological diversity;
b. hazardous substances;
c. radioactive substances;
d. eutrophication.
As agreed at OSPAR/MMC 1998, the
OSPAR Commission meeting in 1999 adopted a further Strategy on
Environmental Goals and Management Mechanisms for Offshore Activities.
The 1992 OSPAR Convention is the current
instrument guiding international cooperation on the protection of the
marine environment of the
North-East Atlantic. It combined and up-dated the 1972 Oslo Convention on
dumping waste at sea and the 1974 Paris Convention on land-based sources of
marine pollution.
The work under the convention is
managed by the OSPAR Commission, made up of representatives
of the Governments of 15 Contracting Parties and the European Commission,
representing the European Community .
The work under the Convention is
guided by the Ministerial Declarations and Statements made
at the adoption of the Convention and at the Ministerial Meetings of the
OSPAR Commission. The work applies the ecosystem approach to the
management of human activities.
OSPAR OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY STRATEGY
The Offshore Oil and Gas Industry Strategy sets the
objective of preventing and eliminating pollution and taking the necessary
measures to protect the maritime area against the adverse effects of
offshore activities so as to safeguard human health and of conserving
marine ecosystems and, when practicable, restoring marine areas which have
been adversely affected.
As its timeframe, the Offshore
Oil and Gas Industry Strategy further declares that the Commission will
implement this Strategy progressively and, in so far as they apply,
following on and consistent with the commitments made in the other OSPAR
Strategies
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