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LETTER FROM THE SECRETARIAT’S OFFICE
Dear Friends
The purpose of this letter is to build an informational bridge between preparations for the Kiev “Environment for Europe” process and non-governmental organizations.
As you are aware, the Kiev Conference is the Fifth “Environment for Europe” (EfE) Conference, following those in Dobris (1991), Lucerne (1993), Sofia (1995), and Aarhus (1998). The preparatory process is led by the intergovernmental Working Group of Senior Officials (WGSO), for which the Secretariat is the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). For more information, please go to our Web Site. http://www.unece.org/env/wgso/
Throughout the history of the EfE process, NGOs have been actively involved. Despite early obstacles, many progressive NGO initiatives have been welcomed by the Ministers at the respective conferences. The most successful example of this is the Aarhus Conference.
The Secretariat would like to maintain this transparency and openness for the preparations for Kiev by, among other things, establishing a system for information exchange. We are now planning to organize the next meeting of the Executive Committee (Bureau of the WGSO) in late February 2002, in Kiev. That ExeCom meeting will discuss the Conceptual Framework for the Kiev Conference and possible Agenda items.
It is important that your views on the Conceptual Framework and Agenda for Kiev are also made available to governments. We would also like to be able to provide governments with information on your plans for Kiev, both its preparations and the Conference itself.
You may also wish to prepare inputs to scheduled meetings of the full Working Group of Senior Officials. For the third meeting of WGSO (early July), please send your information no later than 1 June; for the fourth meeting of WGSO (November 2002), please send your inputs by 1 October.
From our side, we encourage you to check our Web Site, which we will keep updated. Should you have difficulty in accessing the Internet, please contact me directly at the address given below. If you so indicate, we would also be pleased to include your information on our Web Site.
We are looking forward to our fruitful cooperation.
Ella Behlyarova
Division for Environment and Human Settlements
UN Economic Commission for Europe
Palais des Nations
1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Tel: 41-22 917-2376
Fax: 41-22 917-0107
email: