Press release

Date: 27.02.02

Invitation to the press

The Fifth International Conference on the Protection of the North Sea, in Bergen, Norway, 20-21 March 2002.

• The opening of the conference will be by the Prime Minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik.

• The issues that will be negotiated are:

The ecosystem approach of the North Sea environment,

the habitats, fisheries, pollution by ships, hazardous substances, eutrophication,

pollution from offshore installations, radioactive substances, renewable energy, marine litter and waste management, the role of spatial planning.

The Minister of the Environment, Mr Børge Brende, will chair the conference.

Please find enclosed the Draft Agenda and Timetable for the conference, a list of the participants invited to the conference, an accreditation form and a hotel reservation form.

We would appreciate your registration as soon as possible and not later than March 4, 2002.

The progress report will be available at the North Sea Secretariat website: http://www.northseaconference.no on February, 27.

A press centre will be established at the conference hotel. Interpretation service in English, French and German.

Yours faithfully,

Ingun Larsen
Press advisor
E-mail: ingun.larsen@md.dep.no
Phone number: 22 24 58 25 - Mobile: 92 60 77 42