The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) is a global treaty signed by 151 States and regional organizations for economic integration with the aim of protecting human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants. Parties to the Convention are required to develop and endeavor to implement a national implementation plan (NIP) on how they carry out their obligations under the Convention. Portugal´s NIP will be subject to periodic reviews and updates in the future, in response to the dynamic nature of the Convention. The negotiations on the Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) were completed in December 2000, under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The Convention was adopted at the Conference of Plenipotentiaries in May 2001. The Community, and its then fifteen Member States and eight of the new Member States signed the Convention on 22 May 2001. Based on the precautionary principle, the Convention provides a framework to eliminate the production, use, import and export of twelve priority POPs, their safe handling and permanent disposal and elimination or reduction of unintentional releases of certain POPs. The text of the Conventions also defines the rules of addition of new chemicals to its annexes. The control measures defined by the Convention have been implemented by EU legislation, namely through Regulation (EC) 850/2004 of the European Parliament and Council of 29 April 2004 on persistent organic pollutants which amended the EU Directive 79/117/EC, Regulation (EC) 304/2003 of the European Parliament and Council of 28 January 2003 concerning the export and import of hazardous chemicals and the Council Directive 96/59/EC of 16 September 1996 on the disposal of polychlorinated biphenyls and terphenyls (PCBs/PCTs). The Council approved the Convention, on behalf of the European Community, through the Council Decision CS/12649/04 of 14 October 2004. The Convention entered into force on 17 May 2004. Portugal ratified the Convention by national Decree 15/2004 of 3 June. The Convention is an important tool that must operate in conjunction with other multilateral environmental agreements such as the Rotterdam and Basel Conventions and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), in order to enable effective management of chemicals at international level. By ratifying the Stockholm Convention, the Parties agree to manage and control the twelve POPs and to a formal process to consider the addition of other substances to the Convention. The twelve POPs that were included when the Convention entered into force (2004) fall into three broad categories: pesticides, industrial chemicals and unintentionally produced POPs.
Portugal · 2010-01-01