Council Decision (EU) 2016/768 of 21 April 2016 on the acceptance of the Amendments to the 1998 Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution on Heavy Metals

What it is

to approve, on behalf of the European Union, the Amendment to the 1998 Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution on Heavy Metals. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Council may adopt the act only if Parliament has given its consent to the act. BACKGROUND: the Union is a Party to the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution following its approval in 1981. The Convention is the main international legal framework for cooperation and measures to limit and gradually reduce and prevent air pollution and its adverse effects upon human health and the environment in the UNECE region. To date, the Convention has been extended by eight Protocols, including the 1998 Aarhus Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants which aims to control, reduce or eliminate discharges, emissions and losses of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The Union is a party to the 1998 Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution on Heavy Metals, following its approval on 4 April 2001. In 2012, the parties present at the 31st session of the Executive Body of the Convention adopted by consensus Decisions 2012/5 and 2012/6 amending the Protocol . The scope was extended with a view to further improving the protection of human health and the environment, including through the updating of emission limit values that addressed emissions of air pollutants at source. The amendments set out in Decision 2012/6 entered into force and became effective, whereas the amendments set out in Decision 2012/5 require acceptance by the parties to the Protocol. The amendments to the Protocol set out in Decision 2012/5 should therefore be accepted on behalf of the Union, CONTENT: the Council is invited to approve, on behalf of the European Union, the amendments to the 1998 Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution on Heavy Metals. Scope of the Protocol : this Protocol aims to reduce and control anthropogenic emissions into the air of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd) and mercury (Hg), as harmful heavy metals subject to long-range transboundary atmospheric transport, with a view to further protecting human health and the environment. In this respect, it requires Parties to reduce their total annual emissions of lead, cadmium and mercury below their levels in 1990 (or an alternative year between 1985 and 1995). This amendment shall be further transposed in particular via a Directive setting updated national emission ceilings for certain atmospheric pollutants and providing for annual national emission inventories that shall cover, among others, emissions of lead, cadmium and mercury. The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety adopted the report by Giovanni LA VIA (EPP, IT) on the draft Council decision on the acceptance of the Amendments to the 1998 Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution on Heavy Metals. The committee recommended the European Parliament to give its consent to acceptance of the Amendments to the Protocol. To recall, the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution is intended to protect the human environment against…

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