Protection of the Rhine: conclusion of the new Convention, 12 April 1999, Bern

PURPOSE : to conclude a new Convention for the Protection of the Rhine. COMMUNITY MEASURE : Council Decision 2000/706/EC concerning the conclusion, on behalf of the Community, of the Convention for the Protection of the Rhine. CONTENT : by Decision 77/586/EEC, the Community concluded the Convention for the Protection of the Rhine against chemical pollution and the Additional Agreement concerning the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine against pollution (ICPR). The other Contracting Parties are France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland. At the 25th meeting of the Coordinating Group of the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine, the representatives of the riparian states drew attention to the importance of, both now and in the future, protecting the waters of the river Rhine and concluded that it was necessary to provide for a new Convention on the Protection of the Rhine which would take account of complementary approaches involving measures to: - preserve, improve and stabilise the ecosystem of the Rhine; - ensure the natural functioning of running water; - promote the economic and effective use of water; particularly with regard to the management of drinking water reserves; - prevent, reduce and avoid the incidence of transfrontier industrial and urban pollution, particularly where this is atrributable to toxic, persistent, carcinogenic, mutagenic and bioaccumulable sustances; - reduce pollution from diverse sources, including groundwater; - prevent and counteract accidental pollution incidents. The new Convention which covers the areas of Community competence relating to the environment, has been approved by the Council on behalf of the Community. ENTRY INTO FORCE : the Decision shall enter into force on 7 November 2000.�