OSPAR / Ministerial Declarations

1998 Ministerial Meeting of the OSPAR Commission

Main results

The 1998 Ministerial Meeting of the OSPAR Commission was held in conjunction with the 1998 annual meeting of the Commission in Sintra (Portugal) on 22-23 July 1998.

Since the 1992 OSPAR Convention had entered into force on 25 March 1998, the 1998 Ministerial Meeting of the OSPAR Commission was the first meeting under this new Convention.

The main products of the meeting are as follows:

a new Annex to the 1992 OSPAR Convention concerning the protection and conservation of the ecosystems and biological diversity of the maritime area covered by the Convention and a related Appendix;
strategies aimed at guiding future work of the Commission on the longer term with regard to:
an Action Plan setting out actions for the period 1998-2003 to be taken by the Commission with a view to implementing these strategies;
an OSPAR Decision on the disposal of disused offshore installations;
new rules governing the participation of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the work of the Commission, with the intention of enabling NGOs to participate at all levels of the Commission's working structure.

At the end of their meeting, Ministers adopted the Sintra Statement setting out the political impetus for future action by the OSPAR Commission with a view to ensuring the protection of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic.