Proposal for a Council Decision on the Community position to be adopted on certain proposals submitted to the 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), Santiago, Chile, 3-15 November 2002 (COM(2002) 516 final)

The 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES will be held in Santiago, Chile, from 3-15November 2002.

The text of the Convention was amended in 1983 to allow Regional Economic Integration Organisations such as the EC to become a Party (the so-called Gaborone amendment). However, an insufficient number of Parties have ratified this amendment in order for it to come into effect.

In view of the effects of decisions taken by the Conference of the Parties on the implementation of the Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97 of 9 December 1996 on the protection of species of wild fauna and flora by regulating trade therein (1), it is necessary to adopt a Community position on proposals submitted to the Conference.

Draft Resolutions on interpretation and implementation of the Convention and proposals to amend the appendices prepared by Member States or by the Commission were discussed by the Committee of Member States constituted under Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97 at a meeting on 17 May 2002. All proposals and working documents that were approved were subsequently submitted to the CITES Secretariat by the relevant Member State or the Presidency on behalf of all the Member States.

One of these working documents submitted by the Presidency seeks the repeal of two earlier Conference Resolutions on implementation of CITES by the Community. It is submitted that, in the light of the enactment of Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97 and the fact that all 15 Member States are now Parties in their own right (following ratification by Ireland earlier this year), these Resolutions are out of date and should be repealed. The Presidency also submitted a draft Decision calling upon all Parties who have not yet done so to ratify the Gaborone amendment by CoP13 (in 2005).

On 30 July the Commission services held an informal meeting with experts from the Member States to discuss the issues to be debated at the Conference of the Parties.

In the case of agenda items 2-7, 15, 18, 20-24, 26, 28, 32-34, 36, 39, 42, 43, 46, 52, 53-55, 59, 60
and 64 some documents for the Conference were not available in sufficient time for the Commission to propose a Community position at the present time. The Commission therefore proposes that the position on these issues be established during the meeting on the basis of further proposals from the Commission.

The business of the Conference falls into three parts: strategic and administrative matters, interpre-tation and implementation of the Convention and proposals to amend the appendices. As the Community is not a Party to the Convention the first does not generally impact on Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97. The second part represents the evolution of the Convention and is of considerable technical importance but is not likely to have a very high public profile. By contrast the amendments to the appendices (levels of protection afforded to different species) are certain to prove controversial.

The following are the most critical issues with regard to amendment of the appendices:
— whales,
— elephants,
— Asian freshwater turtles and tortoises,
— commercial fish species, including sharks and toothfish,
— timber.

There are two annexes to the proposed Council Decision. Annex I outlines the Community position on the critical issues listed above. Annex II contains proposed Community positions on Conference agenda items for which documents were available by 31 July 2002.

ESO: Key Source: Relations between Chile and the European Union http://www.europeansources.info/record/relations-between-chile-and-the-european-union/

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