Decision 2013/790 - 2013/790/EU: Council Decision of 13 December 2013 on the acceptance on behalf of the EU of the Amendment to Articles 25 and 26 of the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 349/98

The European Union is a Party to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (‘the Convention’) following its approval in 1995 (1).

The main purpose of the Convention is to establish a framework for bilateral and multilateral cooperation to prevent and control the pollution of transboundary watercourses and to ensure the rational use of water resources in the Member countries of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

At their 2003 Meeting, the Parties to the Convention expressed a wish to allow States situated outside of the UNECE region to become Parties to the Convention in order to promote river basin cooperation throughout the world.

Other UNECE environmental conventions, for instance, the Convention on the Access to Justice in Environmental Matters and the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, are open to States situated outside of the UNECE region.

The European Community participated in the 2003 Meeting of the Parties which adopted the Amendment allowing accession of any State that is a Member of the United Nations to accede to the Convention upon approval by the Meeting of the Parties.

The Amendment will enter into force upon acceptance of all States and organisations that were Parties to the Convention on 28 November 2003.

The Amendment should be accepted on behalf of the Union,

A new paragraph is inserted in article 25, after paragraph 2, of the Convention, reading

‘3.   Any other State, not referred to in paragraph 2, that is a Member of the United Nations may accede to the Convention upon approval by the Meeting of the Parties. In its instrument of accession, such a State shall make a declaration stating that approval for its accession to the Convention had been obtained from the Meeting of the Parties and shall specify the date on which approval was received. Any such request for accession by Members of the United Nations shall not be considered for approval by the Meeting of the Parties until this paragraph has entered into force for all the States and organizations that were Parties to the Convention on 28 November 2003’.

and the remaining paragraphs are renumbered accordingly;

In article 26, paragraph 3, after ‘referred to in article 23’ the words ‘or in paragraph 3 of article 25’ are inserted.