An extraordinary session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Convention was held on 19 and 22 April 2010 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, back to back with the first session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (20-22 April 2010). As initially an insufficient number of Parties were represented at the session to achieve a quorum, it was agreed to suspend the session and reconvene on 30 June 2010.

Upon the request of the Government of Norway, which was supported by more than a third of the Parties, the extraordinary session of the Meeting of the Parties was convened for the purpose of discussing a) the establishment of a Task Force on Public Participation in Decision-making; b) accession to the Convention by non-ECE Member States; and c) the mandate for the Compliance Committee’s documentation. Following a proposal from the Chair, the Meeting also discussed the translation of the national implementation reports.

Due to a disruption of air traffic in Europe caused by the eruption of an Icelandic volcano, many delegations were unable to travel to Geneva to attend the session on 19 and 22 April. As a result, no quorum was reached and so no formal decisions could be taken. The decisions were thus taken ad referendum and were subsequently approved at the resumed session of the Meeting on 30 June 2010.

The Meeting of the Parties decided to establish a Task Force on Public Participation in Decision-making and agreed upon its terms of reference. It also agreed to mandate the Working Group of the Parties to consider the procedure for decision-making regarding accession to the Convention by non-ECE States, and to propose a decision on the topic at MoP-4. Delegations welcomed the interest in accession to the Convention expressed by the Minister of Environment of Cameroon Mr Pierre Hélé.

The Meeting further agreed to provide a clear mandate to produce the reports and findings of the Compliance Committee as official documents so that they would be available in the three official languages. Finally, it agreed to mandate the Working Group to consider the option of discontinuing the practice of producing the national implementation reports in the three official languages.

The following are the documents prepared for the Extraordinary session of the Meeting of the Parties 2010: