Proposal for a Council Decision concerning the approval, on behalf of the Community, of OSPAR Decision 98/2 on the dumping of radioactive waste at sea

(1999/C 158/02)

(Text with EEA relevance)

COM(1999) 190 final - 99/0096 (CNS)

(Submitted by the Commission on 26 April 1999)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 130r(4), the first sentence of Article 228(2) and the first subparagraph of Article 228(3) thereof,

Having regard to the Commission proposal,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,

(1) Whereas the Community is a Contracting Party to the Convention for the protection of the marine environment of the north-east Atlantic (OSPAR Convention) pursuant to Council Decision 98/249/EC of 7 October 1997(1); whereas the aim of that Convention, which entered into force on 25 March 1998, is to prevent and eliminate pollution and to protect the maritime area against the harmful effects of human activities;

(2) Whereas Article 3 of Annex II to the OSPAR Convention prohibits the dumping at sea of waste and other substances, including low and intermediate level radioactive substances; whereas Article 3(3)(b) provides, as an exception, the possibility of an exemption for France and the United Kingdom from the permanent and complete prohibition from the dumping at sea of this type of substance or waste; whereas Article 3(3)(c) lays down the arrangements for extending this possibility;

(3) Whereas the Government of the French Republic and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have respectively stated, at the 1997 OSPAR Commission meeting, that they have decided to renounce for good the possibility of resuming the dumping at sea of radioactive substances, including waste, and no longer wished to preserve the possibility of an exemption from the permanent and complete prohibition on the dumping at sea of radioactive substances, including waste;

(4) Whereas the executive body of the OSPAR Convention (the OSPAR Commission) may adopt measures in the fields covered by the Convention; whereas it has adopted OSPAR Decision 98/2 on the dumping at sea of radioactive waste, which revokes the exception provided for in Article 3(3)(b) of Annex II to the OSPAR Convention;

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Sole article

1. OSPAR 98/2 on the dumping at sea of radioactive waste is hereby approved on behalf of the Community.

The text of the said Decision is attached to this Decision.

2. The Commission is authorised to notify this approval to the OSPAR Commission.

Done at ...

For the Council

...

The President

(1) OJ L 104, 3.4.1998, p. 1.

OSPAR DECISION 98/2

on dumping of radioactive waste(1)

THE CONTRACTING PARTIES TO THE CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT OF THE NORTH-EAST ATLANTIC

WELCOMING the statement by the Government of the French Republic at the 1997 meeting of the Oslo and Paris Commissions that it had agreed to renounce for good the possibility of resuming dumping at sea of radioactive substances, including waste,

WELCOMING equally the statement by the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the same meeting that it no longer wished to preserve the possibility of an exemption for the United Kingdom from the permanent and complete prohibition on the dumping at sea of radioactive substances, including waste, contained in the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic,

RECALLING the provisions of Article 3(3)(c) of Annex II to that Convention,

DECIDE THAT:

The exception, provided for in Article 3(3)(b) of Annex II to the OSPAR Convention, to the prohibition, in Article 3(3)(a), on the dumping of low and intermediate level radioactive substances, including wastes, shall not be continued.

(1) Secretariat note:

In accordance with Article 13 of the 1992 OSPAR Convention, this Decision will enter into force and become binding on 9 February 1999.