Translation from Russian

16 April 2002, the Hague, the Netherlands

Statement Of Ministers of Environment of 12 Countries on the Development of the Environment Strategy

We, Ministers of the Environment from the following sovereign states: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, met on the 16 ^th> of April 2002 in the Hague (the Netherlands) and agreed on actions to accelerate environmental reforms in our countries, and to strengthen our position in European and international co-operation.

At their Conference in Aarhus in 1998, Ministers of Environment of the region of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) agreed to refocus the “Environment for Europe” process on the needs of our states in order to prevent further environmental degradation in our countries. However, the environmental situation in our countries remains serious and there has, so far, been only limited progress in refocusing efforts on our region.

Recognising the need to strengthen the role of our countries in the “Environment for Europe” process and to provide our input for the implementation of the Aarhus decisions, we decided to join our efforts and to develop an Environmental Strategy. This Strategy, developed by our states in the framework of the “Environment for Europe” process, would lead to real improvements in the state of the environment in our countries; its successful implementation will become an important step towards a united and sustainable Europe.

The Strategy would aim to find solutions tocommon environmental problems of our countries on the basis of close co-operation. A common approach is needed because many environmental problems identified as a priority in national policies of individual countries have common roots in the legacy of the Soviet Union and in the specific features of economies in transition. In particular, continued adherence to deeply rooted methods of inefficient economic development and administrative management have delayed the transition of our countries to a market economy, democratic practices and effective protection of the environment.

We believe that at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, that will take place in August-September 2002 in Johannesburg, special attention should be paid to environmental protection as a basis for sustainable development. In this regard, the Environment Strategy could become an instrument for meeting the objectives formulated in Agenda 21, and for strengthening the environmental pillar of sustainable developmentin the region. Our message to the World Summit about the development of the Environment Strategy would promote a stronger position of transition economies in global co-operation on overcoming obstacles on the way towards sustainable development.

The participants of the meeting noted the need to develop new forms of partnership in the framework of specific regional initiatives. The Strategy should also become an instrument for providing clear information about the most effective forms of co-operation to partners in the “Environment for Europe” process.

The Environmental Strategy of our countries should be a concise document that would focus on a few principal objectives, each addressing a common environmental problem. The Strategy would build on the successes and failures of environmental reforms. A ten year time frame would be adopted for the Strategy, with actions divided into short-, medium- and long-term. In particular, the objectives may include the following: Harmonisation of Environmental Policies and Legislation; Pollution Prevention and Control; Natural Resources Management in Economies in Transition; Integration of Environmental Considerations into Sector Policies; Financing Mechanisms, Including Debt-for-Environment Swaps; Democracy of Environmental Decision-Making and Providing Information to the Public; Identification of Transboundary Problems of the Participant Countries.

The Strategy will be supported by detailed analytical documents. An overview of our countries’ experience in environmental reforms over the last 10 years will be presented in an overall Assessment Report. Each objective would be supported by a more detailed Background Paper outlining key challenges, goals and proposed actions for achieving the objective.

Under each objective, the Strategy should specify an action programme that will be implemented at national and international levels, as well as performance indicators, which will help to monitor progress toward achieving the Strategy’s objectives, and provide a means for the governments, potential donors and investors to measure the effectiveness of their financial and technical assistance. For each subject area, the Strategy should identify one or more international programme and institution that could facilitate the co-operation within and beyond the countries to support the achievement of respective objectives.

The process of Strategy development should be open and include all stakeholders and institutions interested in meeting the objectives of the Strategy. To ensure the overall leadership and co-ordination of the Environment Strategy preparation, we decided to establish a Steering Group consisting of senior officials of our Environment Ministries and NGOs. We call upon international organisations and programmes working in the areas targeted by the Environment Strategy to take an active part in its elaboration and to support the activities of the Steering Group. We also invite environmental NGOs and other partners to contribute to the development of the Strategy within the framework of the Steering Group’s activities. We call upon the Regional Environmental Centres to provide support to these initiatives.

The Steering Group will regularly inform Ministers of the progress in preparing the Strategy; in particular, it will provide the Ministers with an interim report about the preparation of the Assessment Report and Background Papers by November 2002. We also request that the Steering Group provide information about the development of the Strategy to relevant international and regional organisations.

This meeting’s conclusions and recommendations will be discussed at the joint meeting of Environment Ministers of our countries and Environment Ministers from Western Europe that will take place 17 ^th> April in the Hague. We will inform colleagues about our decision to launch the development of the Strategy and will emphasise the unique character of this initiative for transition economies in the “Environment for Europe” process. We will also discuss the significance of this Strategy at European, Eurasian and global levels as a possible input to the development of new forms of partnership in regional co-operation – a potentially important mechanism for reforming environmental management and for transition towards sustainable development.

We will meet again early in 2003 to review the final draft of the Strategy. At this meeting we will make a decision concerning the transmission of the Strategy for the discussion at the fifth “Environment for Europe” Ministerial Conference in Kyiv in May 2003.

The meeting participants are grateful to Mr. Jan Pronk, the Minister of Environment of the Netherlands for inviting the Ministers to the Hague and for organising our joint session with Ministers from selected European Union counties. We also thank Mr. Sergei Kurykin, the Minister of Environment of Ukraine for organising this meeting and for active co-ordination of the initiative to develop the Environment Strategy.

16 April 2002, the Hague, the Netherlands

Signed:

Vardan AYVAZYAN

Minister of Nature Protection, Armenia

Gussein BAGIROV

Minister for Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, Azerbaijan

Vasiliy PODOLYAKA

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, Belarus

Nino CHKHOBADZE

Minister of Environment, Georgia

Nurlan ISKAKOV

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, Kazakhstan

Ratbek ESHMAMBETOV

Minister of Environmental Protection, Kyrgyzstan

Nicolae STRATAN

Deputy Minister of Environment and Territorial Development, Moldova

Alexander POVOLOTSKY

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources, Russian Federation

Usmankul SHOKIROV

Minister of Environmental Protection, Tajikistan

Matkarim RAJAPOV

Minister of Nature Protection, Turkmenistan

Khalillulo SHERIMBETOV

Acting Chairman of the State Committee for Environmental Protection, Uzbekistan

Sergei Kurykin

Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Ukraine