The Eleventh Session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD11), held in New York from April 28 to May 9th, 2003

Representatives from 191 UN member countries, international organizations and NGOs will be gathered in New York City, from April 28 to May 9th, 2003 to participate in the Eleventh Session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD11), the first global meeting devoted to Sustainable Development.

Since this will be the Commission's first global meeting devoted to sustainable development since the Johannesburg Summit, this session has a crucial role to play in providing sound political direction to the implementation of the Johannesburg outcomes and Agenda 21 and to the next phase of the Commission's work.

EU Commission urges Member States to establish port reception facilities to protect and conserve the marine environment

The European Commission announced of its plan to take legal actions against the Member States which do not comply with the Directive 2000/59/EC, a proposal for a Directive on port reception facilities for ship-generated waste and cargo residues.

This is in reaction to the continued dumping at sea of ship generated waste and cargo residues, which occur as a result of minimum surveillance and inadequate prosecution of offenders, resulting in serious pollution of the marine environment.

The Member States which do not comply with the Directive will be subject to prosecution by the European Court of Justice and will be charged with penalty payments or other legal actions.

The Commission is confident that the implementation of the Directive would lead to a sharp increase in the quantities of ship-generated waste delivered to European port reception facilities and to a sharp fall in the number of illegal discharges at sea.