30th Meeting of the Bonn Agreement

The Bonn Agreement is the mechanism by which the countries around the North Sea and its Approaches, and the European Union work together to help each other in combating pollution in the North Sea Area from maritime disasters and chronic pollution from ships and offshore installations; and to carry out surveillance as an aid to detecting and combating pollution at sea.

The meeting laid the groundwork for the Ministerial meeting to be held in 2019 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Bonn Agreement. Progress was made in the proposed expansion of the Bonn Agreement Area to include Bay of Biscay, within Spanish waters and to invite Spain to become a signatory to the Agreement. The meeting also discussed the inclusion of the prevention of air pollution from ships (MARPOL Annex VI) within the work of the Bonn Agreement.

Following a busy week of discussions on the deliverables for the Ministerial meeting in 2019, the
Bonn Agreement also announced that it would expand its BE-AWARE project which produced the first area-wide risk assessments of marine pollution in the North Sea, identifying emerging issues and opportunities for improvement.
Chair, Willy Dekker (The Netherlands), said that delegates should “take time to celebrate the successes of the Bonn Agreement” before going on to remind delegates that they should “…be proud of the solid foundation of intergovernmental trust and cooperation for which the Bonn Agreement is known and continue to work together to ensure that the Bonn Agreement remains relevant for a further 50 years”.