Participation of the Romanian delegation to the the third meeting of the Open-ended Working Groups (OEWG - 3) in Strategic Approach to International Chimical Management (SAICM)

Source: Romanian presidency of the EU (Romanian presidency) i, published on Friday, April 5 2019.

The Romanian delegation participated to the third meeting of the Open-ended Working Groups (OEWG - 3) in Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM). In the context of the presidency of the Council of the European Union, Romania coordinated the common position of the participants states.

The Meeting took place at the Antel Arena in Montevideo, Uruguay, from 2 to 4 of April. The Romanian delegation was headed by Laurențiu Adrian Neculaescu, State Secretary at the Ministry of the Environment, and was composed of specialists from the institutions responsible for environmental protection.

..We remain fully committed to the continued implementation of Strategical Approach on International Chemicals Management until 2020 in order build new framework on a solid basis. This meeting comes at a crucial moment and provides the opportunity to make a difference: UNEA 4 has once more adopted an important resolution on the sound management of chemicals and waste, which demonstrates that all governments recognize the importance of the sound management of chemicals and waste as a crucial contribution for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular goal 12 on a sustainable circular economy. The European Union and its Member States supported Strategical Approach on International Chemicals Management from the very first moment and we are comitted to continuing our support and do the more efforts in order to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda. We are ready to engage in constructive discussions on an improved enabling framework in this meeting in order to prepare International Conference on Chemical Management 5’’, State Secretary Laurențiu Adrian Neculaescu declared in the plenary of the reuniun.

The following topics were included on the agenda: Strategic Approach and the sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020, independent evaluation of the Strategic Approach for the period 2006-2015, considerations for the sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020, preparation of recommendations for the fifth session of the international conference on chemicals management, that will be organized in Bonn, in 2020.

According to the proposal of our delegates, Romania is going to host the fourth meeting of the intersessional process on SAICM in March 2020, in Bucharest.

Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) is a policy framework to promote chemical safety around the world. SAICM overall objective is the achievement of the sound management of chemicals throughout their life cycle so that by the year 2020, chemicals are produced and used in ways that minimize significant adverse impacts on the environment and human health.