ECE Activities

Regional Preparatory Meeting on the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action

The ECE will organize a Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Beijing + 5 Review in collaboration with the Council of Europe, the European Commission and UNDP in Geneva from 19-21 January 2000. The issues to be addressed include (1) women and the economy; (2) institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women; (3) women and violence; and (4) women in power and decision-making. The conclusions and recommendations will be transmitted to the Prep Com of the June 2000 Special Session of the General Assembly. Drawing on the major trends, successes and setbacks, the conclusions will focus on strategies and actions for promoting further implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in the region. The meeting will provide an opportunity to facilitate dialogue between NGOs and Governments.

Cooperation between ECE and ESCWA on technical harmonisation

On 2-3 February 1999 a workshop on standardization policies in Arab countries was held in Amman, Jordan. ESCWA and the secretary of the ECE Working Party on Technical Harmonization organized this event at the invitation of ESCWA.

Discussions at the meeting revealed a weak institutional structure for standardization and quality developments in the majority of countries in the region. Many resulting proposals were aimed at strengthening regional cooperation on these issues. In this context, delegates expressed interest in the ECE Working Parties activities, especially with a regional dimension.

Executive Body for the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution to mark the Convention’s 20th anniversary

The 17th session of the Executive Body for the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution will mark the 20th anniversary of this Convention when it meets in Gothenburg, Sweden from 29 November to 3 December 1999. A ministerial segment of the session will be devoted to the adoption and signing of a new multi-effect Protocol to the Convention to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone. Numerous information materials will be issued for the session, including a brochure on the new Protocol; a booklet on "ECE in your daily life": a Fresh Breath of Air; a major review of strategies and policies for air pollution abatement; a booklet on acidification and a brochure on the impact of air pollution and development of the Convention.

The Convention on Longrange Transboundary Air Pollution is one of the main means of protecting the environment. It was drafted after scientists demonstrated the link between sulphur emissions in continental Europe and the acidification of Scandinavian lakes. Later studies confirmed that air pollutants could travel several thousand kilometres before deposition and damage occurred. This implied that cooperation at the international level was necessary to solve problems such as acidification. The Convention, signed in 1979 and entered into force in 1983, was the first internationally legally binding instrument to deal with problems of air pollution on a broad regional basis.

ECE cooperation with other regional commissions in the area of agricultural quality standards

The Working Party on Standardization of Perishable Produce and Quality Development (WP.7) has intensified its cooperation with the ESCWA secretariat in 1999. Over 20 ECE standards concerning produce of interest to the ESCWA region have been translated into Arabic and distributed among the countries. The chairman and the secretariat of WP.7 participated in an expert Group Meeting hosted by ESCWA during the Spring to describe the work methods used by ECE groups and suggest possible implementation in the ESCWA region. A number of recommendations were decided at the meeting and will now be discussed in the individual countries. A follow-up meeting will take place in the year 2000.

In the meantime, the ECE and ESCWA secretariats have agreed to remain in close contact. The ESCWA secretariat hopes to participate in the meetings of the Working Party on Standardization of Perishable Produce and Quality Development (WP.7) and the Specialized Section on Coordination of Standardization of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables (GE.1) in November 1999 in Geneva.

In cooperation with the Spanish Government, a number of ECE standards have been translated into Spanish and have been made available to ECLAC and several South American countries. Similar cooperation with ESCAP and ECA during 2000 are being considered.

Green light to the European inland waterway network

The European Agreement on Main Inland Waterways of International Importance (AGN) entered into force on 26 July 1999. This international Agreement, within the framework of ECE, identifies the main international inland waterway links in Europe and establishes uniform infrastructure and operational parameters to which they should conform. It underlines the importance of inland water transport which, in comparison with other modes of inland transport, presents economic and environmental advantages and may, therefore, contribute to reducing congestion, traffic accidents and negative environmental impacts in the panEuropean transport system, particularly along main congested international transport corridors in Europe.

The international E inland waterways network defined in the Agreement covers around 28,000 km of main navigable rivers and canals and about 350 ports of international importance extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ural mountains and connecting 37 countries in Europe and beyond. The AGN completes the already existing ECE European Agreements AGR, AGC and AGTC, which established the international E road, E rail and E combined transport networks respectively.

Postwar reconstruction and development in south-east Europe

Without minimizing the direct impact of military operations on Yugoslavia or of the considerable burden of caring for the refugees in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania, the ECE 1999 Second issue of the Economic Survey stresses that the economic consequences have been severe also for Bulgaria, BosniaHerzegovina, Croatia, and Romania. These seven countries constitute "south-east Europe", for the purposes of discussion in the Survey. They are where the transition process from central planning to market economy has proved extremely difficult, partly because of highly unfavourable initial conditions, the lack of historic traditions in institutional development, their distance from the major west European economies, and, not least, a long series of external economic shocks starting with the collapse of the CMEA, passing by the effects of international sanctions on Iraq and Yugoslavia, and ending at present with the Kosovo conflict. The Survey stresses that if south-east Europe is not to continue to be a source of instability and of threats to European security, then the chronic poverty and economic stagnation of the region must be addressed. Simply repairing the damage incurred as a result of the Kosovo conflict will only return the region to the status quo ex ante, which itself was a major factor in the crisis to begin with. Hence the stress on reconstruction and development of the region as a whole.

Given the scale of structural problems in the region and the need to start dealing with them promptly, and in order to create positive expectations and a momentum for change, the Survey argues that the best way to get things moving is to follow the example of the United States vis-à-vis western Europe in 1948 and supply them with significant amounts of grant aid, although this would remain subject to agreed programmes being carried out. The Survey emphasises that in any reconstruction and development programme for south-east Europe, Yugoslavia must play a central role.