9. PRTRs -The Opportunity:
Citizens’ Right to Know to Environmental and Health Information

June 24 Thursday

14-16

F
room, red

English

Side event will be organized by REC, EMLA and IHEAL together with governmental and NGOs experts from various European countries to demonstrate the link between the UNECE Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTR), developed under the auspices of the Aarhus Convention and signed in Kiev in May 2003 and the proposals of the pan-European environmental health information systems.

This side event will review the progress in development of national and regional PRTRs, and address how the application of the principles and elements of the Aarhus Convention, its PRTR Protocol and their incorporation into the design of the future 'European-PRTR' could support the development of a pan-European environmental health information system.

The Protocol calls for establishment of integrated national multi-media registers based on mandatory annual reporting from facilities that ensure information on releases and transfers of at least 86 pollutants such as green house gases, acid rain pollution, ozone depleting substances, heavy metals, certain carcinogens such as dioxins.  Activities such as thermal power stations, mining and metallurgical industries, chemical plants, waste and waste-water treatment plants, paper and timber industries, intensive livestock production and aquaculture, food and beverage industry and other activities as well as pollution data from non-point sources  will be covered.  The registers should be easily accessible in standardized electronic databases for communities, thus can provide a practical tool for public access to information about risks posed by pollutants to health and environment. It will be searchable according to parameters such as facility, pollutant, location, environmental media, etc. but its most developed version allows citizens to find such data in geographical allocation including about their closest neighbourhood.

The Protocol was signed by 36 countries, including all EU member states and new EU member states except for Malta and Slovakia and the European Community. It also led to the approximation between the earlier PRTR initiatives and the EU’s European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER). The EU has launched its European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER) in February 2004. The Commission has decided to develop a regulation to implement the PRTR Protocol at the EU level and upgrade the current EPER system by 2006 into an E-PRTR. This will also facilitate the implementation of the PRTR Protocol by all EU members states including by the end of the decade.

All interested participants are welcome to take part of the roundtable discussions.

Contact:

Magda Toth Nagy * The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) * www.rec.org * tmagdi@rec.org * (36) 26 504 000 ext. 211