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Austria in Bid for Alpine Convention Water Protocol
Mar 24, 2005
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alpMedia
The main areas of focus of Austria's chairmanship of the Alpine Convention have now been defined. At a press conference held in Innsbruck/A on 18 March Environment Minister Josef Pröll outlined Austria's programme. According to Mr Pröll Austria is to focus on adopting a Water Protocol, addressing transport issues and completing the Progress Report on the state of the Alps.
Austria is to chair the Alpine Convention for the next two years.
Mr Pröll referred to the immanent significance of the entire Alpine arc for Europe's hydrological household and to the problems of the many different claims to exploitation. He added that although the EU's Framework Directive on Water Policy was an important instrument for cross-border water protection, not all the contracting parties to the Alpine Convention were also members of the EU. "Here we see the need to provide a legal framework also under the aegis of the Alpine Convention, which is why we shall move quickly to make a start on the preliminary work," said Mr Pröll. With this initiative Austria is responding to demands which both CIPRA and various environmental groups have been raising for many years.
Austria also wants to capitalise on its double presidency of both the Alpine Convention and the EU in the coming year to raise the issue of a sustainable and economically viable transport trend in the alpine region at the international level. It is to focus its attention not just on transit traffic but also traffic within the Alps and external-internal tourist traffic. In this connection Environment Minister Pröll announced that an international expert conference would be held in Austria in January 2006.
Finally he added that work on the Progress Report on the Alps was also to be completed under Austria's chairmanship. The Minister is particularly interested in obtaining a clear documentation of the damage that has already become noticeable in the Alps as a consequence of climate change.
Source: http://minister.lebensministerium.at/article (de)
Mr Pröll referred to the immanent significance of the entire Alpine arc for Europe's hydrological household and to the problems of the many different claims to exploitation. He added that although the EU's Framework Directive on Water Policy was an important instrument for cross-border water protection, not all the contracting parties to the Alpine Convention were also members of the EU. "Here we see the need to provide a legal framework also under the aegis of the Alpine Convention, which is why we shall move quickly to make a start on the preliminary work," said Mr Pröll. With this initiative Austria is responding to demands which both CIPRA and various environmental groups have been raising for many years.
Austria also wants to capitalise on its double presidency of both the Alpine Convention and the EU in the coming year to raise the issue of a sustainable and economically viable transport trend in the alpine region at the international level. It is to focus its attention not just on transit traffic but also traffic within the Alps and external-internal tourist traffic. In this connection Environment Minister Pröll announced that an international expert conference would be held in Austria in January 2006.
Finally he added that work on the Progress Report on the Alps was also to be completed under Austria's chairmanship. The Minister is particularly interested in obtaining a clear documentation of the damage that has already become noticeable in the Alps as a consequence of climate change.
Source: http://minister.lebensministerium.at/article (de)
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