Issue N� 11 � 14 - 18 April 2003

It�s just happened �

Working Group of Senior Officials holds its 6^th meeting

On 3-4 April the Working Group of Senior Officials continued its consideration of the draft Ministerial Declaration for the fifth Ministerial Conference �Environment for Europe� (Kiev Conference). Negotiations will resume in an open-ended drafting group on 29-30 April in Geneva.� The meeting concluded its discussions on �Environmental partnerships in the UNECE region:� Environment Strategy for Countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia,� and agreed to forward the Strategy to the Kiev Conference. Documents related to energy efficiency, the future of the Environment for Europe process, and the organization of work during the Kiev Conference were also discussed.

INTERSOL 2003

The 4^th Seminar on Analysis, Methodology of Treatment and Remediation of Contaminated Soils and Groundwater, INTERSOL 2003, took place in Paris on 1-3 April 2003 at the invitation of the Government of France and under the auspices of UNECE. Among the 500 participants, from Europe and beyond and particularly from CITs, were scientists, industry managers and administrative authority decision-makers.� The lectures and discussions on the problem of contaminated sites, soils and aquifers mostly focused on the approach to assessment of risk to people and the environment, land use-planning, in particular for polluted sites inside urban zones, and improvements in remediation treatment technologies. The Seminar also hosted an exhibition of techniques and services on soil remediation and a �project fair� where a series of project opportunities, all located in CITs of eastern Europe, were presented.

The public asks for more information and better protection of privacy

The protection of privacy is a fundamental right of each of us.� While the information collected by statistical offices provides valuable material for researching the socio-economic situation of society, citizens and businesses must be guaranteed the confidentiality of their data. Finding the right balance between the right to information and the protection of privacy of individuals represents a major challenge for official statistics.� Representatives of national statistical offices and international organizations, the research community and academia, meeting in Luxembourg (7-9 April) for a Joint UNECE/Eurostat work session on statistical data confidentiality, considered the practical issues of confidentiality protection. They discussed concrete applications and computer software, but also prospective ideas.� The protection of privacy has to keep up with the new challenges created by the development of technology and direct access to statistics over Internet. The meeting discussed solutions that will guide us towards better and more accessible statistics, and also towards greater trust of respondents and better protection of their privacy.

UNECE Workshop on Trade, Business and Investment in a Wider Europe

Representatives of Governments, business, international organizations and the academic community met on 7 April to discuss the major issues relating to an enlarged EU and its future relations with neighbouring countries at a Workshop on �Trade, Business and Investment in a Wider Europe�. The workshop concluded that further integration within the European region is necessary in order to develop a zone of prosperity, stability and security.� The Wider Europe is supposed to include Russia, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova, Belarus and a number of Mediterranean countries. For this to happen, further progress in transition must be achieved, structural economic reforms must be strengthened, an investment-friendly environment will need to be created and trade regimes liberalized in the countries concerned. It was suggested that, based on its experience and its existing work in areas such as regulatory harmonisation, standards and trade facilitation, exchange of views on best practices, policy guidelines, etc. the UNECE could serve all its member States for promoting economic integration in a Wider Europe.

For further information see:� http://www.unece.org/trade/workshop/april2003/0703_h.htm

Modelling the cost-effectiveness of air pollution abatement technology

The Expert Group on Techno-economic Issues, under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, held its annual Steering Group Meeting in Paris on 3-4 April 2003, preceded by a Workshop on the development of a techno-economic database.� Costs of air pollution abatement technologies and their efficiencies in reducing emissions are an important part of the integrated assessment modelling work under the Convention. National experts were trained in the methodologies for reporting economic data (eg. electricity prices, heat prices, wages, costs of abatement measures) related to the reduction of air emissions from various sectors (industry, transport, agriculture). The project is lead by France, and will provide important cost-data needed for the modelling work of the Convention, as well as for the European Commission's Clean Air for Europe (CAFE) programme.

Coming up soon �

14-15 April����������������� Working Party on Combined Transport
14-16 April����������������� European Forest Sector Outlook Studies � Core Meeting

Facts and figures: