Doc. 9725

5 March 2003

Reducing environmental risks by destroying chemical weapons

Recommendation 1571 (2002)

Reply from the Committee of Ministers

adopted at the 829th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (27 February 2003)

1.       The Committee of Ministers has considered Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1571 (2002) on reducing environmental risks by destroying chemical weapons. It brought the recommendation to the attention of the governments of its member states and communicated it to the Council for the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy and to the Committee for the activities of the Council of Europe in the field of biological and landscape diversity, for information.

2.       The Committee of Permanent Correspondents of the EUR-OPA Major Hazards Agreement examined the recommendation at its meeting in Paris on 12-13 December 2002. The Committee instructed its European Centre on the evaluation of technological risks (TESEC) in Kiev to prepare a report on how the environment is affected by the stocks of chemical weapons and the measures to be drawn up to protect the civil population against these risks.

3.       The Committee of Ministers will consider this report in due time. It will be communicated to the Parliamentary Assembly.