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and to provide for a regional cooperation mechanism to that effect. It is projected to enter into force in early 2016.


Much of the pollution in the Caspian Sea stems from land-based sources brought in through tributary rivers or other run-offs. As an enclosed water body, the Caspian Sea is particularly vulnerable and pollution has a strong transboundary character affecting all riparian countries. Therefore, the Caspian states initiated the Moscow Protocol for the Protection of the Caspian Sea against Pollution from Land-based Sources and Activities. It harmonizes the Parties’ approaches to tackle land-based pollution from point sources like industry waste water run-off or from diffuse sources like agricultural production. The Protocol is signed by all Parties and is expected to enter into force in the course of 2016.


Isolated from the world’s oceans for millions of years, the Caspian Sea is home to a number of endemic species and vulnerable habitats. With increasing international ship traffic, the introduction of alien species is particularly destructive to the unique Caspian Sea ecosystem. The Ashgabat Protocol for the Conservation of Biological Diversity addresses these threats through common country approaches on species and habitat protection, including through coastal and marine protected areas. This effort and agreement is especially noteworthy, as the legal status and therefore the marine borders of the Caspian Sea remain undecided. The Ashgabat Protocol was agreed at COP5 in 2014 and so far, is signed by three Parties and ratified by one.


Big commercial projects and activities in and around the Caspian Sea, for example in the area of oil and gas extraction, often have an adverse effect on neighbouring countries. In order to jointly assess the environmental risks and to avoid conflicts, the Caspian countries developed the Protocol on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in a Transboundary Context. Drawing from the UNECE Espoo Convention on transboundary EIA. The Protocol constitutes an essential instrument for regional environmental policy and for engaging the public in the process. It is in its final stages of negotiation and will be further discussed at COP6 in 2016.


Despite respectable progress in recent years, information on the state of the Caspian Sea’s environmental conditions - needed for sound environmental policy making - is still lacking and often incomparable. In an attempt to harmonize the collection and access to environmental data as well as to share the information among the countries, the Caspian states initiated negotiations on a draft protocol on monitoring, assessment, access to and exchange of environmental information. The protocol will capitalize on a reporting system, state of the environment reporting, and the Caspian Environment Information Centre which is a website for information exchange already established by the countries. An expert Working Group on Monitoring and Assessment is accompanying and feeding into the protocol development. With negotiations having started only recently in 2015, such a legally binding international agreement would be the first of its kind worldwide.


These efforts undertaken within the framework of the Tehran Convention show that the Caspian states have developed a strong legal basis and governance structure for international environmental policy in the Caspian Sea region in recent years. In the coming years, the Parties, with the support of the international community, will increasingly focus on the implementation of these agreements. The UNEP Regional Office for Europe administers the interim Secretariat of the Tehran Convention.


139: EU Neighbourhood policy


The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) governs the EU’s relations with 16 of the EU’s closest eastern and southern neighbours: to the south Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, State of Palestine, Syria and Tunisia, and to the east Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The Russian Federation takes part in cross-border cooperation activities under the ENP but is not a part of the ENP as such.


The ENP was launched in 2003 and developed during 2004, with the objective of avoiding the emergence of new dividing lines between the enlarged EU and its neighbours and instead strengthening the prosperity, stability and


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