EU Ratifies Stockholm Convention On Persistant Organic Pollutants

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BRUSSELS, Belgium, November 19, 2004 (ENS) - The European Union took two big steps in the past 24 hours. The Council of Ministers and Parliamentappointed a new executive branch under a new president, and the EU stepped up efforts to get rid of the world’s most toxic chemicals by ratifying the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).

President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, a former Prime Minister of Portugal, will install his new 24 member Commission on Monday. Parliament approved his lineup Thursday after President Barroso replaced three members of his original team, including an Italian conservative Catholic who was seen as too right-wing to become commissioner responsible for justice.

Barroso offered his thanks on behalf of the whole Commission team for the vote of confidence. "We have a great deal of work to do, and we will now get down to it," he said. Outgoing President Romano Prodi of Italy offered his congratulations and warm wishes to his successor.

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The Stockholm Convention entered into force on May 17, 2004 and has so far been ratified by 83 countries from all over the world. Among the 12 chemicals whose production and use it bans are three types: pesticides, such as DDT; industrial chemicals, such as PCBs; and unintentional by-products of industrial processes, such as dioxin and furans. Most of these substances are known to cause cancer or be otherwise toxic. Thirteen EU member states are already Parties to the Convention, the others are expected to ratify shortly. Wallstrom today welcomed the ratification of the POPS Convention "as an important step to rid the world of the worst man-made substances."

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