First session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention

Entry into force event

The first meeting of the Parties to the Convention took place on 21–23 October 2002 in the town of Lucca in Tuscany, Italy. The meeting represented the culmination of a four-year preparatory process involving two meetings of Signatories and three meetings of a preparatory Working Group.

The High-level Segment of the Meeting of the Parties

The high-level segment took place on the first day of the meeting and was attended by more than twenty European Ministers and vice-Ministers for the environment, representing Parties as well as Signatories to the Convention. Most of them delivered a general statement addressing inter alia the implementation and application of the Convention in their countries. Written statements are available in the languages in which they were submitted to the secretariat.

The high-level segment of the Meeting culminated in the uanimous adoption of the Lucca Declaration (ENG FRE RUS).

Documents for the Meeting 

The Meeting adopted a number of decisions, which had been prepared by the Working Group. Most of the decisions were adopted without any amendments but changes were made to a few of them. The Meeting also considered some background documents. All these documents as well as agenda and report of the meeting are available below.

ECO Conference

The European ECO Forum organized an International Eco-Conference "Public Participation: The Road From Words To Practice!" on 19-20 October 2002 in Hotel Carignano, in Carignano-Lucca, Italy. The ECO Conference adopted the Carignano-Lucca Declaration and presented it to the Meeting of the Parties.