The 33rd Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Bonn Agreement was held online on 22-23 September and was chaired by Annika Wahlfried Wikingsson (Sweden).
The meeting was opened by Deirdre O’Keeffe, Assistant Secretary and Head of the Irish Maritime Directorate (IMD) in the Department of Transport of Ireland, who reiterated the invitation to host Bonn 2022. Representatives from Belgium, Denmark, the European Union, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, attended the meeting.
On the Decision of the accession of Spain to the Bonn Agreement, Spain notified that the ratification process was still ongoing. After the approval by the Parliament, it was now being considered by the Senate.
The notifications of approval of the Decision on the extension of the scope of application of the Agreement with a view to cooperation on surveillance in respect of the requirements of Annex VI to the MARPOL Convention have been provided by Denmark, Germany, the European Union, the Netherlands and Norway. While the ratification process continues, OTSOPA will make progress through the 2 Working Groups (WGs) addressing the strategic and operational issues (MAVI-SOWG) and the technical matters (MAVI-TWG). The Terms of Reference of these groups were agreed by Bonn 2021 and their work will start as soon as the co-convenors are defined.
Belgium presented a concept outline of a comprehensive BA MARPOL Annex VI project related to strategic-operational and technical aspects needing extra funding. This potential project could be submitted to funding calls by 2023 once a consortium is set up to prepare the proposal based on the concept agreed by the meeting.
A mechanism to identify funding priorities within the Bonn Agreement for future project calls was adopted by Bonn. An Intersessional Correspondence Group will start its work in 2022 by reviewing the list of research priorities and raising awareness among R&D organisation. The co-convenors of the ICG were thanked for their work and commitment.
An official map and shapefile of the Bonn Agreement will be soon published on the website after Bonn 2021 agreed the visual interpretation of the boundaries. The 2020 surveillance and Tour d’Horizon reports have also been made available.
A step forward was given to enhance the cooperation with the OSPAR Commission in those areas of common interest. The Memorandum of Understanding between the Bonn Agreement and the OSPAR Commission with the necessary amendments to the Rules of Procedure was agreed, pending on the adoption by OSPAR 2021 and the signature of the Chairs of both organisations.
An update was given on relevant R&D projects and on France’s involvement in the X-Press Pearl incident in Sri Lanka. Norway gave a presentation on the ongoing SuperCEPCO operations at the time of the meeting.
Bonn agreed to grant observership to the non-governmental organisations KIMO International and EUROWA Network, which will be welcome to the 2022 OTSOPA meeting.
The meeting thanked Frank Deutcher (Germany) for many years of measured interventions at the Bonn discussions and wished him the best in his new professional journey. The Chair hoped that Bonn 2022 scheduled for 20 – 22 September 2022 would be a face-to-face meeting in Ireland to finally meet all the engaged participants.
