Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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1033. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the priorities for the forthcoming meeting of the parties to the Aarhus Convention. [34824/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the "Aarhus Convention") will take place in Budva, Montenegro from 11 to 13 September 2017. My Department will be represented at the meeting.

There is a broad agenda for the three day conference, which can be accessed at the following link:

The agenda includes discussions on matters such as the use of electronic information tools to facilitate access to environmental information, the promotion of the Convention, and the development of a new work programme under the Convention for 2018 to 2021, as well as a review of the current work programme.  There will also be consideration of findings and recommendations of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee. In this context, in particular, officials of my Department have been engaged with fellow EU Parties to the Convention in recent months, principally through its participation in the Working Party on International Environment Issues, with a view to developing a common EU position on certain agenda items of common interest to EU Member States.

The main priority for Ireland will be to seek to ensure that awareness and implementation of the three pillars of the Aarhus Convention by all parties is ultimately enhanced by the discussions and decisions that will take place at the Meeting of the Parties.