Under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), negotiations for a Convention for the application of the prior informed consent (PIC) procedure for certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides in international trade were concluded in March 1998.
The Convention was opened for signature at a Ministerial Diplomatic Conference held in September 1998 in Rotterdam. It was signed by the Community on 11 September 1998. The Rotterdam Convention represents a major step forward in the international regulation of certain hazardous chemicals, including pesticides. Its objective is to promote shared responsibility and co-operative efforts among the Parties in the international trade of such chemicals in order to protect human health and the environment from potential harm and to contribute to their environmentally sound use.
The Union has implemented the Convention through Regulation (EU) No 649/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council 1 . By its Decision 2006/730/EC of 25 September 2006 2 , the Council decided to approve the Convention on behalf of the European Community.
The Convention entered into force on 24 February 2004. The eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP8) will take place in Geneva from 24 April to 5 May 2017. In addition to the Union, 27 of its Member States are Parties to the Convention.
On the basis of recommendations from the Chemical Review Committee (CRC), a subsidiary body under the authority of the Conference of the Parties (COP), COP is expected to take decisions on the inclusion of further chemicals in Annex III to the Convention, making them subject to the PIC procedure. Chemicals recommended by the CRC for listing in Annex III were found to meet the criteria of Annex II to the Convention.
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