Arctic Council Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response meeting 2019

9 December 2019

The Secretariat attended the Arctic Council's Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response (EPPR) meeting in Reykjavik (Iceland) from 4-5 December 2019. OSPAR provided a short presentation on the work of OSPAR and the Bonn Agreement highlighting the possible common areas of interest.

Regarding OSPAR, the Secretariat referred to the importance of OSPAR’s engagement with the Arctic Council to complement the work in the Arctic Council Working Groups as OSPAR Region I is Arctic waters. It was mentioned that OSPAR shares information, experience and practices with the Arctic Council Working Group "Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment" (PAME) and Emergency, Prevention, Preparedness and Response (EPPR) Working Group. OSPAR considered common work on radiation issues and also informed the meeting about the OSPAR Ministerial meeting to be held in 2020 and the new strategy that will be delivered.

The Secretariat also highlighted the relation between EPPR and the Bonn Agreement. Updates from the work of EPPR were given in the annual OTSOPA and Bonn meetings by Norway. The Secretariat referred to the Bonn Agreement Ministerial meeting held in October 2019 to celebrate 50 years of effective cooperation in combatting marine pollution in the Greater North Sea. The meeting was updated on the ministerial deliverables: two decisions to include unlawful air emissions from shipping (Marpol Annex VI) and the Bay of Biscay through the accession of Spain, a new Bonn Strategic Action Plan for 2019-2025 and a Ministerial Declaration.

As common areas of interest between the EPPR WG and the Bonn Agreement, the Secretariat mentioned the research on new low sulphur fuels, risk analysis and the use of Remoted Piloted Aircraft Systems.