IMPEL and the Basel Convention join forces

Archiv – The Basel Convention and IMPEL have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a view to strengthening cooperation between the two bodies. Expertise will be shared to curb illegal traffic of hazardous and other wastes subject to the Basel Convention. European Union | The Basel Convention and IMPEL have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a view to strengthening cooperation between the two bodies. Expertise will be shared to curb illegal traffic of hazardous and other wastes subject to the Basel Convention.
Concrete activities will focus on inspections, monitoring, reporting and enforcement of the provisions of the Basel Convention. There will also be training activities for Parties to the Basel Convention that are developing countries and countries with economies in transition on legislation, regulation and best practices.
’Enforcement remains a serious issue in the implementation of the Basel Convention’ says Katharina Kummer Peiry, Executive Secretary of the Basel Convention. ‘€˜This is why cooperation with IMPEL and benefiting from IMPEL’€™s expertise in the enforcement area will be of tremendous support to the Basel Convention, especially as far as new problematic waste streams such as electronic wastes are concerned.’€™
IMPELs’€™ purpose is to ensure a more effective implementation and enforcement of environmental legislation in the European Community, while the Basel Convention is the most global environmental agreement on hazardous and other wastes. It has 170 Parties and aims to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects resulting from the generation, management, transboundary movements and disposal of hazardous and other wastes.
Gerard Wolters, Chair of IMPEL’€™s provisional board, indicates that both organizations needed each other for the effective implementation of environmental legislation in the area of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their environmentally sound management, high priority topics for IMPEL. He statez that in terms of enforcement, waste management is the most challenging of all environmental issues.
Discussions have started on the formulation of a work programme for cooperation using Basel Convention projects with an enforcement component as a basis. The first area of further cooperation will probably be related to monitoring shipments of electrical and electronic waste from Europe to developing countries and to the environmentally sound management of such waste.