Proposal for a Council Decision on the acceptance of the Amendment to the 1998 Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution on Heavy Metals

The 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (the LRTAP Convention) concluded under the auspices of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) 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, with a specific focus on long-range transboundary air pollution. The LRTAP Convention was signed on behalf of the European Economic Community on 14 November 1979 and approved by Council Decision 81/462/EEC of 11 June 1981.

To date, the LRTAP Convention has been extended by eight Protocols, including the 1998 Aarhus Protocol on Heavy Metals (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. The accession of the Community to the Protocol was approved on behalf of the Community by Council Decision 2001/379/EC of 4 April 2001.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)750: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:750:FIN

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