on the position to be adopted, on behalf of the European Union, at the Seventh Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on mercury and at the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Minamata Convention on Mercury with regard to the provisional and subsequent final adoption of guidance referred to in its Article 8, paragraphs 8 and 9.

Explanatory Memorandum

1.CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL

The European Union (EU) and 26 Member States have signed the Minamata Convention on Mercury (hereinafter referred to as "the Convention") which was negotiated under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and adopted in October 2013 at a Conference of the Plenipotentiaries in Kumamoto, Japan.

The Convention is the main international legal framework aimed at protecting human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds (hereinafter referred to as "mercury emissions") to air, water and land. It addresses the whole life-cycle of mercury from primary mercury mining to mercury waste disposal.

Article 8 of the Convention requires Parties to control and, where feasible, reduce mercury emissions to air originating from point sources falling within the source categories listed in its Annex D. In accordance with Article 8, paragraph 2, letter (b), of the Convention, a Party may choose to regulate only part of the sources covered within a source category, provided that the sources covered account at least for 75 per cent of the emissions from the source category concerned.

In line with Article 8, paragraph 4, of the Convention, Parties shall require all "new sources" to make use of the best available techniques (BAT) and of the best environmental practices (BEP). For "existing sources", Parties shall control atmospheric mercury emissions through one or more of the measures listed in Article 8, paragraph 5, of the Convention, which include the use of BAT and BEP, the establishment of a quantified goal or the setting-up of emission limit values (ELVs). Parties are also required, by virtue of Article 8, paragraph 7, of the Convention, to establish and maintain an inventory of mercury emissions to air from the sources regulated under Article 8.

To assist Parties to fullfil these obligations, Article 8, paragraphs 8 and 9, of the Convention provides that guidance shall be adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (CoP) on BAT and BEP, on support for Parties in implementing the measures set out in Article 8, paragraph 5 (in particular in establishing quantified goals and ELVs), on the criteria that Parties may implement under Article 8, paragraph 2, letter (b) and on the methodology for preparing an emission inventory.

Article 8, paragraph 10 (2nd sentence), of the Convention specifies that Parties shall take this guidance into account when implementing Article 8.

Within this framework, the Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Convention set up and mandated a group of technical experts, as a subsidiary body reporting to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, to develop the guidance documents called for in the above-mentioned Article 8, paragraphs 8 and 9. The objectives set by the Conference are to enable the CoP to decide on such issues at its first meeting and to promote expeditious international action to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic mercury emissions pending the entry into force of the Convention. In effect, the four guidance documents have been finalised by this expert group, published by the UNEP Secretariat on [XX/XX/XXXX] and shall accordingly be submitted for provisional adoption at the Seventh session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC.7) to take place on 10-15 March 2016 in Jordan, bearing in mind that they are not expected to be modified in substance between this provisional adoption and their formal and final adoption by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (CoP).

2.RESULTS OF CONSULTATIONS WITH THE INTERESTED PARTIES AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

The group of technical experts met four times between February 2014 and September 2015. Following a public consultation by UNEP on the draft guidance documents that took place in summer 2015, the group finalised the draft documents shortly after its fourth meeting held on 10-15 September 2015 in Stockholm.

While the EU is working towards the transposition into Union law and the ratification of the Convention, the obligations resulting from the above-mentioned Article 8, paragraphs 4, 5 and 7, as complemented by the Article 8 guidance, are already established in several EU instruments. In particular, Directive 2010/75/EU on Industrial Emissions (IED) requires operators of installations covered by Article 8 of the Convention to take appropriate measures to prevent pollution caused for instance by mercury emissions, and, for that purpose, to make use of BAT. Regarding the obligation to set up and maintain a mercury emission inventory and the relevant methodology explained in the proposed guidance, Regulation (EC) No 166/2006 on a European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) establishes such an inventory.

Therefore, the provisional adoption of the guidance documents, followed by formal adoption by the CoP, would not cause any additional environmental or socio-economic impacts in the EU. It would however encourage third countries to reduce emissions of mercury to air that cause transboundary pollution in the EU and contribute to contaminating the global food chain.

3.LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE PROPOSAL

Considering that EU legislation is in line with the four proposed guidance documents, the position to be taken by the EU at INC.7 should be to support them so as to ensure that they are provisionally adopted, with a view to promoting their implementation as soon as possible and to enabling their formal and final adoption by the CoP at its first meeting.

4.BUDGETARY IMPLICATION

The proposed decision does not have budgetary implications for the Union.