Archive for September, 2006

COMMON FORUM NEWS NR. 15

Thursday, September 28th, 2006

Dear All,

The biggest news, and most of your probably already heard it, is the publication last friday of the EU soil protection policy package containing a communication about the soil protection strategy, a proposal for a soil framework directive, an impact assessement ( large document) and a summary of the impact assessment, a press communication, a questions and answers document and a beautiful document entitled ” soil protection, the story behind the strategy” . All this can be downloaded from http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/index.htm
This means that we can now discuss the real texts in the open, and we will have a good start at the meeting in Bilbao. Luca Marmo from the DGENV soil team will give an in depth presentation and we will have time to exchange opinions. Another important discussion we will have in Bilbao is about the rules for ” state aid” and the financing of soil remediation projects. We will have some presentations about experiences in memberstates and a larger in depth presentation by Saskia Dirkzwager - De Rijk from EU DG Competition. State aid will be the theme of the now traditional smaller group discussions on the afternoon at the first day.

Other issues on the agenda are:
A special request for a discussion by our hosts, which I am presently discussing by email with Ana Alzola (IHOBE, Basque country) who helps me to organize the meeting
A get together on wednesday evening November 1
A joint dinner with possibly a visit to the famous Guggenheim museum

MY QUESTIONS:
1] Please look at the draft agenda below and if you have any comments, questions or additions please let me know as soon as possible . I kept the times for the different session a bit flexible in view of the probably later than usual lunch and dinner times in Spain
2] Please confirm your presence or absence at this meeting so that the organizers have an estimate of the number of participants.

AGENDA COMMON FORUM MEETING IN BILBAO 2 & 3 NOVEMBER 2006

November 1, Informal get together at a place still to be decided, start 19.00

November 2, start 10.00
- Opening and welcome by a representative of the Basque country
- Introduction to the agenda
- Tour the table ( short introductions and statements by meeting participants) part 1
Coffee break
- Tour the table ( short introductions and statements by meeting participants) part 2
- The Bilbao case
Lunch
- One or two country presentations on state aid
- EU presentation on current developments of ideas concerning state aid and contaminated sites remediation funding (Saskia Dirkzwager)
Tea Break
- Group discussion
Dinner (possibly in combination with a visit to the Guggenheim museum)

Day 2 start 9.00
-Reports of group discussions
-General conclusions
Coffee break
-Presentation of the EU soil policy package (Luca Marmo)
-Discussion
Lunch
-Discussion about next common forum activities

COMMON FORUM NEWS NR. 14

Thursday, September 7th, 2006

Dear All,
I do hope that you all have had nice holidays. Meanwhile some decisions were made concerning the next meeting in Bilbao and the COMMON FORUM website has gone “public”:
see http://www.commonforum.eu

1] COMMON FORUM MEETING IN BILBAO 2 & 3 NOVEMBER 2006
As always I have to disappoint some COMMON FORUM members and guests who prefered to meet in October. The majority of respondents to my previous mail were in favour of 2 and 3 November. The agenda will ( most likely) cover the following subjects:

a] Contaminated land remediation funding and EU guidelines concerning state aid
This will be the topic of the in-depth group discussion on the afternoon of 2 November. There are some offers for small presentations on national experiences with state aid, but most COMMON FORUM members asked for a keynote presentation by an expert from the EU commission. I will try to invite someone from DG competition to give a presentation on recent EU views concerning state aid and contaminated land remediation funding.

b] The soil framework directive (if it is published before the meeting)
If the soil strategy and the framework directive are published before the meeting we should devote some time to discuss these. I do hope to have some news about this sometime before the meeting in view of the planning of the agenda. If not we should accept a flexible agenda to cope with last minute developments.

c] News about national policy developments
Some members asked to organize a tour de table session with very limited speaking time for each. I will send some ideas for a focussed approach together with the final agenda for the meeting

d] Developments in EU research and projects related to COMMON FORUM , including the exploratory study on expertise centers in the field of urban soil ecosystems discussed in Budapest

e] Next meeting ( most probably in Germany)

2] COMMON FORUM WEBSITE
When clicking the link in this mail you will be directed to the website by your webbrowser. Do not expect a spectacular fancy website. The purpose is to inform you and not to impress you.
The main contents are the COMMON FORUM NEWS mails, some info about COMMON FORUM including the mission statement, a list with members and guests and some links to websites important for our work

3] COMMON FORUM SECRETARIAT
Please note that I will be travelling from monday 11 september till sunday 24 september. I will check my emails and reply to urgent ones in this period, and will attend the kick off meeting of the RISKBASE coordination action in Barcelona on 20 &21 september.

Best regards,
Joop