The UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters was adopted on 25th June 1998 in the Danish city of Århus at the Fourth Ministerial Conference in the "Environment for Europe" process.
The Århus Convention was a new kind of environmental agreement, linking environmental rights and human rights. It imposes on Parties and public authorities obligations regarding access to information and public participation and access to justice. Thus, it establishes that sustainable development can be achieved only through the involvement of all stakeholders, linking government accountability and environmental protection. The Århus Convention is not only an environmental agreement, but also a Convention about government accountability, transparency and responsiveness.
The GLOBE European Charter was adopted at the Århus Conference for Parliamentarians, titled "Our Common European Garden", which was organised by the Environment Committee of the Danish Parliament (Folketing) and GLOBE Europe in Århus, on the occasion of this Ministerial Conference, with the support of the Danish Environment and Energy Ministry, The Danish Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Government of Finland, the Government of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom Know How Fund.
Click here to download a scanned version of the original document.
"We, the representatives of the European people, are gathered as environmental Parliamentarians of all European countries to serve a common goal: the protection, sound management and improvement of our common heritage, the European Common Garden.
We reaffirm our commitment to the Declaration of Strasbourg signed on 20 May, 1992 in which we"pledged to use our skills, utilise all our moral and intellectual capacities and exploit all democratic means to improve the state of the European environment and make it a top priority of our political groups and our Parliaments."
The experience of the GLOBE community has to date been a very successful one. It has enabled us to exchange ideas and information and to act together to preserve Europe's and the planet's environment.
Building upon this experience, we put forward this Charter as the basis for our future work.
1. We are committed to working for the improvement of the quality of life of European and global citizens, improving environmental health, raising environmental standards and steering the course of development towards activities and products that satisfy human needs without eroding our local, regional or global commons.
2. We are committed to preserving and restoring our European common heritage, including our seas, air and biological diversity.
3. We are committed to protecting the global environment, building upon the Rio agreements and for example working to prevent Climate Change, Desertification and Biological diversity loss. We will work for this in the United Nations and all other relevant international fora including the WTO, the OECD and Multilateral Development Banks.
4. We will continue to promote an active civil society, public participation, transparency and the recognition of the rôle of Non-Governmental Organisations.
5. We will keep a permanent watch on the effects of new technologies and scientific developments, such as biotechnologies.
6. We will work in close co-operation with legislative and other international environmental organisations such as the UNEP and the European Environment Agency.
7. Membership in GLOBE will be open to all members of parliament from Europe providing that they are personally committed to protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development, that they are democratically elected and themselves committed to democracy.
8. GLOBE's vocation is to help members co-operate to:
9. As GLOBE members we undertake to speak in our own name and with the environment in mind; we undertake to speak neither on behalf of our country nor of our political group; we undertake to seek to reconcile opposing views, always bearing in mind the best interest of the environment.
10. GLOBE Europe members should be invited to take part in GLOBE International General Assemblies and other relevant activities and campaigns.
11. GLOBE Europe serves primarily to co-operate on international and European environmental questions.
12. GLOBE Europe promotes parliamentary input into important international environment decision- making processes and helps to co-ordinate parliamentary activities relating to and input in important international decisions; where relevant this is carried out within the framework of GLOBE International.
13. In order to ensure a better coordination of environmental policy between countries, we intend to keep each other informed of major developments in our parliaments relating to international and European-wide decision-making, and to draw upon the information provided by colleagues in our own work.
14. GLOBE Europe will hold periodic General Assemblies which will determine general policy. Decisions are to be taken by consensus as much as possible.
15. The General Assembly will be asked to appoint a Steering Committee, charged with implementing its Decisions. Its members should reflect the political, gender and geographical diversity of GLOBE Europe.
16. GLOBE Europe will have a permanent connection and co-ordination with GLOBE EU.
17. We believe that close co-operation between GLOBE Europe, Europe's inter-parliamentary assemblies and the Working Meeting of Representatives of the Environment Committees of the EU and EEA Parliaments is essential.
18. We intend to meet at regular intervals with our GLOBE colleagues in our own parliaments for the following purposes :
19. We shall ensure that we appoint a Member of Parliament in our country, a Co-ordinator or Chairman, to remain in regular contact with the wider GLOBE community; we will also appoint one additional person charged with regular administrative communications with the GLOBE Secretariat."
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