35th Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Bonn Agreement
The 35th Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Bonn Agreement was held in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, on 19-21 September 2023.
The meeting was chaired by Mrs Claire Hughes from the United Kingdom. Ms. Sikkema-Cuppers, Director of Rijkswaterstaat Sea & Delta, opened the meeting and highlighted the importance of this regional agreement in the context of the Freemantle Highway incident where German and Dutch responders worked closely to prevent pollution in July 2023. Representatives from Belgium, Denmark, the European Union, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom attended the meeting.
Following the accession of Spain the consolidated version of the Bonn Agreement has been published on the website. Bonn 2023 updated its list of regional priorities which is shared at regional and European level. Some of these regional priorities are published on the Bonn Agreement website for the scientific community to develop their own initiatives. The level of commitment on the regional priorities reported by Contracting Parties during 2022-2023 will be considered for the preparation of the next strategic action plan. The Bonn Agreement continues making progress on its new scope of work regarding the cooperation on surveillance in respect of the requirements of Annex VI to the MARPOL Convention. The Decision has been now ratified by Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the European Union, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain. During the 2022-2023 intersessional period, the two MARPOL Annex VI Working Groups addressing strategic and operational issues (MAVI-SOWG) and technical matters (MAVI-TWG) have delivered in-kind actions and quick wins, a project proposal and recommendations on reporting and regulations regarding air pollution from ships. The Working Groups will look for a coordinator and funding opportunities to carry out the project proposal on developing a compliance monitoring strategy for MARPOL Annex VI on the Bonn Agreement area. Bonn agreed the Terms of Reference of the Working Group on Operational, Technical and Scientific Questions Concerning Counter Pollution Activities (OTSOPA) and updated those of the MARPOL Annex VI Working Groups. Bonn also agreed to establish a data management system to make the information of the Bonn Agreement more visible and usable and ready to support any reporting obligations for Contracting Parties. This system will be ready by 2024. Bonn discussed risk analysis for marine pollution from ships taking into consideration the outcome of the evaluation of the progress on trends predicted by the BE AWARE 2023 analysis and the ongoing discussions at European level about the role of EMSA and the regional agreements. Bonn welcomed that the work of the Oil Spill Identification Network (OSINet) in providing mutual assistance and promoting quality assurance will resume by 2024. The Network will be co-convened by Germany and the United Kingdom. The Bonn Agreement will engage with OSPAR’s North Sea Network of Investigators and Prosecutors (NSN) and participate in the joint Seminar on Maritime Environmental Crimes which will be held on 29-30 November 2023 in Brussels, Belgium. The next Bonn meeting will be held in Ålesund, Norway, in September 2023. Eric Donnay from Belgium was thanked for his participation in the Bonn Agreement for over 30 years and being Head of Delegation for more than 15 of those and Chair of the Agreement during the 2006 Belgian Presidency. His input and opinions were highly valued due to his long list of achievements, coupled with his strong understanding and engagement with both operational and strategic issues of the Bonn Agreement. |