Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be adopted, on behalf of the European Union, at the Eighth Conference of the Parties to the Helsinki Convention on Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents with regard to the proposal for an amendment of Annex I

The European Union and most of its Member States are Parties to the UNECE Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents. The Convention applies to the prevention of, preparedness for and response to industrial accidents at sites where hazardous activities take place capable of causing transboundary effects.

The Seveso II Directive is the legal instrument to fulfill the obligations of the European Union arising out of the Convention. Annex I to the Convention and Annex I to the Seveso II Directive list categories of and individual hazardous substances for the purpose of defining hazardous activities. In June 2015 the Seveso II Directive will be replaced by the Seveso III Directive, which amongst others, modifies Annex I.

At its 7th meeting in 2012, the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the UNECE Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents mandated the Working Group on the Development of the Convention (WGD) to draft a revised Annex I to the Convention to bring it in line with the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) and to maintain consistency with the corresponding European Union legislation (i.e. the Seveso III Directive).

The Working Group finalised a proposal for the amendment of Annex I to the Convention. EU Member States' experts and the Commission participated in the discussions. The proposal was endorsed by the Bureau of the Convention at its meeting in July 2014 and will be submitted in the CoP for adoption at its December 2014 meeting. As this proposal aligns Annex I to the Convention with Annex I to the Seveso III Directive, it would not cause any environmental or social-economic impacts in the EU.

See also:
- Recommendation for a Council Decision on authorising the opening of negotiations on the amendment of the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)652: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:652:FIN

ESO: Background information: Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents http://www.europeansources.info/record/website-convention-on-the-transboundary-effects-of-industrial-accidents-1992/

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