Second session of the Meeting of the Parties to the PRTR Protocol

The second session of the Meeting of the Parties took place on 2 -4 July 2014

The session includeed:

- High-level Segment (2 July 2014) to be jointly organized with the Meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention 

- General Segment (3 – 4 July 2014).

All sessions, except for the High-level Segment, were organised in the format of a plenary. To allow as many speakers as possible for every agenda item, interventions from the floor lasted not more than 3 minutes. Delegations were encouraged to submit text of their statements in electronic form to the secretariat (aarhus-prtr-mops[at]unece.org, indicating in the subject line “MoPP-2 statement”) prior to the meeting, by 15 June 2014. 

Simultaneous interpretation in English, French and Russian were provided during all formal sessions.

Please note below categories of documents:

1. Post-session documents

2. In-session documents

3. Documents prepared in advance for the session: 

• Category I (official documents for possible action)
• Category II (official background documents, for instance on implementation and compliance and national implementation reports)
• Category III (other documents relevant to the agenda)

4. Intersessional documents of relevance to the agenda (also Category II)

5. Documents distribution policy

6. Statements

The Maastricht Declaration: Transparency as a driving force for environmental democracy (ECE/MP.PP/2014/27 Add.1-ECE/MP.PRTR/2014/2 Add.1) along with all other relevant statements and documents can be accessed at the page of the Joint High-level Segment under the Meetings of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention and its Protocol on PRTRs (Maastricht, Netherlands, 2 July 2014). 

The credentials of all representatives of the Parties and the names of alternative representatives and advisers shall be submitted to the UNECE secretariat. 

To facilitate the procedure of verification of credentials, Parties to the Protocol are invited to submit delegates’ credentials or a scan copy of their credentials to the UNECE secretariat (aarhus-prtr-mops[at]unece.org, indicating in the subject line “MoPP-2 credentials”) by 15 June 2014. Those Parties that submitted a copy of their credentials should present the originals to the UNECE secretariat before the second session of the Meeting of the Parties, as soon as possible on arrival at the meeting in Maastricht. 

Credentials, which are normally issued either by the Head of State or Government or by the Minister for Foreign Affairs or any other person duly empowered in accordance with national legislation to do so, should indicate the composition of the delegation, including the Head of delegation, and should state that the respective delegation is empowered to participate in the meeting and to take decisions on behalf of the respective Government, following the Rules of Procedure (see an example of credentials in English, French and Russian). 

At its second session (Maastricht, the Netherlands, 3-4 July 2014) the Meeting of the Parties is expected to elect six members of the Compliance Committee in accordance with the procedure set out in decision I/2 on the review of compliance, in conjunction with decision I/1 on the rules of procedure (for both decisions, see ECE/MP.PRTR/2010/2/Add.1, EN, FR, RU).

To this end, Parties, Signatories and non-governmental organizations were invited to propose or nominate candidates of recognized competence in the fields to which the Protocol relates, including persons having legal experience.

The following candidates have been nominated for the Compliance Committee, including by Croatia and France, following the early departure of the two members ((Ms. Martina Vazdar (Croatia) and Mr. Didier Guiffault (France)), whose first full term of office was expected to run until the third session of the Meeting of the Parties. 

The Meeting of the Parties elects the members of the Committee by consensus, or failing consensus, by secret ballot. The Committee elects its own Chair and Vice-Chair at the next Committee’s meeting after the second session of the Meeting of the Parties.

For more detailed information about the process of electing members of the Compliance Committee please consult the note on the membership of the Compliance Committee prepared by the secretariat for the third meeting of the Working Group of the Parties to the Protocol (see ECE/MP.PRTR/WG.1/2013/5, EN, FR, RU).

Post-session documents

In-session unedited documents are subject to revision and adoption. The following documents have been adopted by the Meeting of the Parties at its second session.

These documents are presented for possible action by delegations (for signature, endorsement, approval or adoption). They were generally submitted through and approved by the Working Group of the Parties or the Bureau. 

These documents will be translated and reproduced by the Conference Services of United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) prior to the meeting. 

These documents are reports on implementation and compliance and other background documents, prepared by the secretariat or subsidiary bodies of the Protocol to provide a basis for discussion. These documents will be translated where feasible and reproduced by the Conference Service of United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) prior to the meeting. 

The original versions of the national implementation reports (as submitted by the Parties to the secretariat) and any additional versions of the reports provided in the national language or languages, where these were provided in languages other than English, French or Russian, can be accessed from the following webpage. 

These are informal documents related to the agenda of the meeting. Category III documents will not be assigned any symbol, but can be listed on the official website (as received) if they had been submitted to the ECE secretariat before 16 June 2014. Neither the secretariat nor the host country are responsible for translating or copying Category III documents. 

Intersessional Documents of Relevance to the Agenda (Category II)

These documents are reports and related documents produced during the intersessional period (2011-2014), prepared by the secretariat or subsidiary bodies of the Protocol. These documents have been translated and published where feasible by UNOG Conference Services in conjunction with the meetings for which they were produced.

In order to minimize the negative environmental impact of the meetings, the following policy regarding distribution of the documents will be applied during the eighteenth meeting of the Working Group of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention, the fifth session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention (General Segment), the second session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol on PRTRs (General Segment) and their Joint High-Level Segment. 
Documents 

(a) Pre-session documents 
Participants should ensure that they have all pre-session documents that they require for the meetings. There will be no distribution of hard copies of the pre-session documents in the meeting rooms. 
Delegations are requested to bring laptops to the meetings. Wi-fi connection will be provided in meeting rooms. Electric current in the Netherlands is AC 220-230V/50Hz. Sockets fit round two-pin plugs (use of adapters is necessary for all devices). 

(b) In-session documents 
In-session documents will be revised in track changes at meetings and projected live on screen in the meeting room. 
Participants will be informed about a link to the webpage with the documents as revised and approved at the meeting. The revised documents will be uploaded to this web page http://www.unece.org/prtrmopp2_docs.html as soon as they become available. 

(c) Post-session documents 
Post-session documents will be made available after the meeting in electronic form to the UNECE web page (http://www.unece.org/prtrmopp2_docs.html). 

Statements 
Delegations wishing to distribute copies of their statements should inform the UNECE secretariat prior to their distribution and are encouraged to provide the secretariat with electronic copies prior to the meeting. 

Please send your statements to [email protected]. Statements received by the UNECE Secretariat before Wednesday, 25 June 2014, can be uploaded to the UNECE web page upon request. 

Those delegations that wish to distribute hard copies of their statements are required to inform the UNECE secretariat prior to their distribution and bring sufficient number of copies to the meeting room or distribute them through designated pigeon-holes at the meetings’ venue.

Final text of statements delivered at the sessions will be uploaded to the UNECE web page (http://www.unece.org/prtrmopp2_docs.html) after the meeting. 
 

Statements delivered by Parties and stakeholders at the second session of the Meeting of the Parties are uploaded in the table below, as being made available to the secretariat.