European Union and its Member States
Input to Questionnaire on issues relating to the environmental effected related to waste originating from chemical munitions dumped at sea
30 May 2013
Input of the European Union and its Member States to the
Questionnaire on issues relating to the environmental effects related to waste originating from
chemical munitions dumped at sea.
[in reply to Secretariat request DSD/2013/181]
Situation:
1.) Is there an environmental risk for your country/region to be affected by waste originating from
chemical munitions dumped at sea (WOCMDS)? Is so, what are the environmental challenges and
effects posed by WOCMDS?
Some information is available on risks posed by WOCMDS in various Seas bordered by EU countries
and the issue has been identified as a problem so far especially in the Baltic Sea and in the North-
East Atlantic.
More information on environmental challenges is available, for example through the Baltic Marine
Environment Protection Commission (Helsinki Commission, HELCOM), based on the legally binding
Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area (the Helsinki
Convention). HELCOM has established an ad hoc expert group on dumped chemical munitions in
2010 that has elaborated a report on "Update and Review the Existing Information on Dumped
Chemical Munitions in the Baltic Sea"1. HELCOM is planning to publish this report in 2013.
In addition, the OSPAR Commission (OSPAR), based in the legally binding Convention for the
protection of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic, has been studying the issue of
dumped chemical and conventional munitions since 2000. OSPAR published an ‘Overview of Past
Dumping at Sea of Chemical Weapons and Munitions in the OSPAR Maritime Area’ in 2002 that was
subsequently updated in 2005 and 20102. Details of the locations, types and quantities of materials
dumped have been recorded in a database that is on the OSPAR website. In 2003 OSPAR agreed
Recommendation 2003/2 on an ‘OSPAR Framework for Reporting Encounters with Marine Dumped
Conventional and Chemical Munitions in the OSPAR Convention area’ that was subsequently
replaced by updated Recommendation 2010/203. The recommendation required the reporting of
encounters with marine dumped chemical weapons and munitions that are recorded in the database
referred to earlier4. In 2004 OSPAR published an updated review of ‘Convention-wide Practices and
Procedures in relation to marine dumped chemical weapons and munitions’5 including ‘Guidelines for
1http://www.helcom.fi/environment2/hazsubs/en_GB/chemu/?u4.highlight=chemu
2 http://www.ospar.org/v_publications/download.asp?v1=p00519
3 http://www.ospar.org/v_measures/get_page.asp?v0=10-20e_munitions.pdf&v1=4
4 http://www.ospar.org/v_publications/download.asp?v1=p00186 and
5 http://www.ospar.org/v_publications/download.asp?v1=p00185
Fishermen and Other Users of the Sea and its Coastline’. In 2008 OSPAR published a report on "The
Assessment of the Impact of Dumped Conventional and Chemical Munitions"6. Finally, in 2009
OSPAR published the report "Implementation of OSPAR Recommendation 2003/2 Database on
Encounters with Dumped Conventional and Chemical Munitions"7
2.) Does the scientific community in your country/region examine the environmental effects related to
WOCMDS? If so, what are the findings of such scientific researches?
In 2005, the European Commission financed research on the issue through the Sixth Framework
Programme project: Modelling of Ecological Risks Related to Sea-dumped Chemical Weapons
(MERCW) 8. The Baltic Sea research project 'CHEMSEA – Chemical Munitions, Search and
Assessment', has also been partly financed by the European Regional Development Fund 9.
Response to incidents:
3.) Does your country/region have the experience in responding to incidents related to WOCMDS?
Some experience is in the Baltic Sea (see footnote 1) and in the OSPAR region (see footnotes 2-7).
4.) Does your country/region have the capacity to respond to incidents related to WOCMDS?
Any country affected by an incident related to WOCMDS can address a request for assistance to the
Emergency Response Centre (ERC) in the European Commission. ERC is a 24/7 operational hub of
the EU Civil Protection Mechanism which facilitates co-operation in civil protection assistance
interventions by pooling resources and expertise of the 32 participating states10.
5.) Has your government/organization developed an action plan or built capacities to respond to
incidents related to WOCMDS? If not, does your government/organization intend to do so in the
future?
The project CHEMSEA will update the existing guidelines and develop them further in order to reduce
potential threats to the environment and fishermen. OSPAR prepared the 2009 report as a framework
for the development of national guidelines on what to do when munitions are encountered to reduce
risk to fishermen and coastal users11.
Raising awareness and other actions:
6.) Does your government/organization provide information on WOCMDS to civil society and
industry? Does your government raise awareness on WOCMDS and how?
HELCOM does.
6 http://www.ospar.org/v_publications/download.asp?v1=p00365
7 http://www.ospar.org/v_publications/download.asp?v1=p00439
8 http://mercw.org/
9 http://www.chemsea.eu/
10 http://ec.europa.eu/echo/policies/disaster_response/mechanism_en.htm
11 http://qsr2010.ospar.org/en/ch09_09.html
7.) Are there any partnerships between government, industry and civil society in your country/region
on raising awareness, reporting and monitoring of WOCMDS?
Please refer to the various projects mentioned above.
Cooperation:
8.) Does your government cooperate with other States, regional and/or international organizations to
assess or increase awareness of WOCMDS?
The EU cooperates with other states in the framework of different regional sea conventions, such as
the Helsinki Convention and the OSPAR Convention.
9.) What would be, in your view, possible modalities for international cooperation to assess and
increase awareness of WOCMDS?
We see a particular need to build on the existing work of the Regional Seas Conventions. In addition,
consideration could be given to creating a database of sea-dumped-chemical-munitions related and
voluntary shared information (e.g., dumping sites, recorded environmental impact, best practices of
reaction after accidental encounter, available technologies for destruction, etc.), paying specific
attention to using and building upon, rather than duplicating, existing and ongoing work on the issue in
the relevant Regional Seas Conventions. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
(OPCW) could be involved in this process.
