"Strategic environmental assessment"

Madam Chair, dear collueges

Norway supports the proposal to start negotiations on a Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) protocol for several reasons;

Firstly we see the need for a cross sectoral international instrument to cover environmental effects related to the decision-making phase prior to the project level.

At this stage decisions of great importance for the environment are taken.

Secondly SEA is becoming increasingly common in national environmental assessment systems, and the EU will very soon adopt a directive on this, and

Thirdly it gives the possibility to bring together the experiences with public participation, assessment of health effects, and EIA as was demonstrated in the recent workshop in Szentendre which Norway helped to organize together with the Czech Republic, WHO and the Regional Environmental Centre.

Our national experience and further policy developments in the field of SEA goes several years back. We have been concerned about applying EIA principles to sectoral programmes, like opening up of offshore areas for petroleum exploration, or the master plan for the hydro power resources in our country. We are also working on the integration of SEA principles in land use and regional planning, as well as in governmental decision making processes, including legislation. There is also considerable Nordic experiences in this field.

On this background, Madam Chair, Norway is offering to take on the lead country role in the development of an SEA protocol.

In doing this, we see it as paramount to develop a strong instrument, but flexible enough to secure rapid implementation in as many countries as possible.

We would like the negotiation process to be as transparent and open as possible, with the participation of not only government representatives from the Espoo as well as the Århus and health communities, but also that of NGOs, and international organizations such as WHO. We will stand prepared to make extensive use of the internet, perhaps in the form of the net-working facility as described by Poland at the seminar on Sunday.

Bearing in mind that the results of the negotiations must be ready well in advance of the Environment for Europe Ministerial Meeting in Kiev in 2003, the negotiation process needs to be efficient. Strong support from participating countries and the secretariat is therefore very important.

We know that the ECE secretariat already has been doing considerable and excellent work on the issue, but support the draft decision II/13 that the secretariat needs to be strengthened in order to cope with the additional workload of protocol negotiations. We intend to support the secretariat. We hope that other parties and non-parties will come up with resources to facilitate this, and we appreciate the words earlier today from the EU Commission in this respect.

Norway will stand ready to host one of the negotiation meetings, which should possibly have a seminar on SEA attached to it. It would be most welcomed if such meetings and seminars could be organized also in other parts of the region. We therefore encourage other delegations to come up with proposals to this effect, and to participate actively in the development of a SEA protocol.

- Thank you for your attention!