Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be adopted, on behalf of the European Union, at the Seventh Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants regarding the proposals for amendments of Annexes A, B and C

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) was adopted in May 2001 in the framework of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The European Union and its Member States are parties to the Convention and the provisions of the Convention have been implemented in EU law by Regulation (EC) No 850/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on persistent organic pollutants and amending Directive 79/117/EEC (the POPs Regulation).

The overall objective of the Stockholm Convention is to protect human health and the environment from POPs. Specific reference is made to the precautionary approach as set out in Principle 15 of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. The principle is made operational in Article 8 of the Convention, which lays down the rules for including additional chemicals in the Annexes to the Convention.

At the seventh Conference of the Parties (COP7) in May 2015, three decisions should be taken to add polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCN) and hexachlorobutadiene (HCBD) to Annexes A (elimination) and C (unintentional production) and pentachlorophenol (PCP) to Annex A. All three substances were nominated by the EU in 2011. Furthermore the continued need for specific exemptions and acceptable purposes for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid and its derivatives (PFOS) shall be assessed by COP7.

As regards the three new substances, the production, placing on the market, use and unintentional emission have already ceased or have been severely reduced in the Union, whereas it cannot be excluded that they are still produced, placed on the market, used and/or significantly unintentionally emitted in other countries. Due to the potential for long-range environmental transport of these chemicals, the measures taken nationally or at the Union level are not sufficient to safeguard the high level of protection of the environment and human health but wider international action is necessary.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)137: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:137:FIN

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)133: Proposal for a Council Decision on the submission, on behalf of the European Union, of a proposal for the listing of additional chemicals in Annex A to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2015:133:FIN

---