AN OVERVIEW OF THE HARMONISED MANDATORY CONTROL SYSTEM

L.R. Henriquez

State Supervision of Mines, Ministry of Economic Affairs, P.O. Box 8, 2270 AA Voorburg, The Netherlands

1 INTRODUCTION

Since the 1970s there has been a major concern by the public in general regarding the potential pollution of the North Sea marine environment by discharges of chemicals used in the offshore Oil Exploration and Production Industry (E&P).

In 1974 most of the North Sea countries experiencing these offshore activities signed the Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from land based sources (the so-called Paris Convention) which came into force in 1978. However the policy applied by the countries party to this convention about the prevention of pollution by the use and discharge of offshore chemicals until recently did suffer from harmonisation. For the discharge will take place in the same North Sea and consequently the potential pollution due to these discharges does not have boundaries.

First steps towards harmonisation started in 1985 with discussions about protocols how to carry out toxicity testing, for there was a lack in seawater tests. Ring tests carried on toxicity and biodegradability of offshore chemicals resulted in harmonised test protocols accepted by all countries party to the 1978 Paris Convention. This resulted in 1995 in the acceptance by all parties of the Harmonised Offshore Chemical Notification Format (HOCNF 1995). This format contains all necessary information for the assessment and evaluation of offshore chemicals prior their use and discharge.

Meanwhile a risk based approach for the assessment and evaluation of the use and discharge of offshore chemicals became a more important instrument. At the 4th International Conference on the Protection of the North Sea, the Ministers agreed to invite Paris Commission to adopt a Harmonised Mandatory Control System (HMCS). This should be adopted if possible at the Paris Commission Meeting in 1996, taking into account of the Chemical Hazard Assessment and Risk Management (CHARM).

This resulted in the PARCOM Decision 96/3 on a Harmonised Mandatory Control System for the Use and Reduction on the Discharge of Offshore Chemicals having the HOCNF as an Annex to the decision.

In 1998, a new convention, called the Convention for the protection of the marine environment of the North - East Atlantic, succeeded the 1978 Paris Convention. All decisions taken by Contracting Parties to this so-called 1998 OSPAR Convention shall have binding force. Consequently, the PARCOM Decision 96/3 had to be adapted to the new binding condition, which resulted in 2000 in a new OSPAR Decision 2000/2 on HMCS. This paper gives an overview of this new decision and the latest developments with regard its implementation within the framework of the OSPAR Convention.

2 THE OSPAR CONVENTION, STRATEGIES AND DECISIONS

The OSPAR Convention entered into force on 25 March 1998. It replaces the OSLO and PARIS Conventions of 1978. The Convention has been signed and ratified by all contracting parties (15 countries including the EU) to the last mentioned conventions and by Luxembourg and Switzerland.

The long-term objective of the OSPAR Convention is to prevent and eliminate pollution and to protect the maritime area against the adverse effects of human activities so as to safeguard human health and to conserve marine ecosystems, where practicable, restore marine areas which have been adversely affected. For that, the OSPAR Commission will take all necessary measures to realise that objective. Contracting Parties to the Convention shall adopt programmes and measures which contain, where appropriate, time – limits for their completion. They should also take full account of the use of the latest technological developments (Best Available Techniques or BAT) and practices (Best Environmental Practice or BEP) designed to prevent and eliminate pollution fully.

In 1998, the OSPAR Commission adopted the OSPAR Strategy with regard to Hazardous Substances (Reference number: 1998 – 16) and in 1999 the OSPAR Strategy on Environmental Goals and Management Mechanisms for Offshore Activities (Reference...