The first meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention established a new task force to facilitate the implementation of the Convention by. preparing draft recommendations on the more effective use of electronic. information tools to provide public access to environmental information. (see decision I/6 ENG FRE RUS). The Task Force, led by Bulgaria, held its first. meeting on 23–24 June 2003 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Before the meeting, participants were invited to submit questionnaires on the use of electronic tools in their countries and regions. The following delegations submitted their responses:

The new task force had continued to examine good practice examples in this field and further explored the mechanisms for dissemination of environmental information to the public in electronic form. Please follow the links to find out more about the Biodiversity Clearing-House (Bulgaria), eCommunities Project (Estonia), E Governance Initiative (Estonia), Aarhus Convention National web page (Romania), EnviroNet (Sweden), What's In Your Backyard (United Kingdom) and Electronic Networking for Environmental NGOs in Southeast Europe.

Relevant developments and processes in the area of electronic tools were presented by representatives of UNEP, GRID-Arendal and The World Bank.