Guidance on the Practical Application of the Espoo Convention
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Directives concernant l'application concrète de la Convention d'Espoo
Руководство по практиприменению Конвенции Эспоо
(No. 8 in the environment series)
The Espoo Convention requires that procedures for environmental impact assessments are extended across borders between Parties of the Convention when a planned activity may cause significant adverse transboundary impacts.
This Guidance aims at offering practical ways and solutions for applying the Convention to all stakeholders involved in the development of activities within the Parties' territories. The information will be of use to competent authorities, points of contact, other authorities on federal, national, regional and local levels, developers, international financing institutions, non-governmental organisations, and the public.
Additionally, the Guidance emphasizes issues that are mandatory under the Convention, such as public participation and assessment of long-range impacts. It also provides ideas on how to improve the efficiency of the practical application through, e.g. national rules for implementing the procedures, entering into bilateral and multilateral agreements, and making assessments.
This Guidance was developed in response to Decision II/2 of the Second Meeting of the Parties of the Convention. Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden took the lead in drafting the Guidance, while the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) carried out the practical work. The Parties have actively participated in the development of the Guidance through workshops and editorial rounds.
The Guidance on the Practical Application of the Espoo Convention is either available here on these World Wide Web pages or it can be printed easily by opening the PDF version.
These pages are designed for the use on the Internet. The guidance can be read by following the order of contents or by choosing the parts of interest by the topics of the contents. The key words lead you to the Article 1 of the Convention text and to the sections of the guidance where the particular subject is dealt with.