Of course financial support from COMMON FORUM members is again needed to support this project. In the COMMON FORUM meeting in Rotterdam several members expressed their willingness to discuss the continuation of the funding with the decision makers in their Ministries. A formal request from the French Ministry for financial contribution is to be expected.
I want to take the opportunity to thank you all for the nice cooperation during and in between the COMMON FORUM meetings in the last three years, and I am certain that Dominique will be able to keep the COMMON FORUM in a healthy condition.
PROBLEMS WITH WEBSITE COMMON FORUM.EU
I have problems uploading files at this website since it has been hacked by a Turkish hacker, putting a large banner on the site stating that he did not like George Bush. I think that hacking websites of networks of EU members will not promote the accession of Turkey to the EU, but I don't think hackers do care about that. At present you can still access the website, but any COMMON FORUM NEWS from after the COMMON FORUM meeting in Rotterdam will not be there ( till the problem has been solved). Meanwhile you can still download the presentations and the report for this meeting at this website.
Before handing over the secretariat to Dominique Darmendrail I will create an archive website with the material which is still relevant. I will inform you as soon as the site passed the test for accessibility by different systems and browsers. In any case the website www.commonforum.eu will be continued ( after August) by BRGM, maybe with another lay-out, format and new facilities.
ONGOING DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THE SOIL FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE
As you may remember by the end of 2007 the Portuguese EU presidency was not able to reach a political agreement between member states. After that the official sources of information have remained silent, but there has been a lot of activity in the background in order to get the Soil Framework Directive on the agenda again. The pro's and con's of the proposed directive have also been intensively discussed on international conferences.
CONSOIL 2008 devoted two special sessions to the subject and many presentations in other sessions referred to the EC proposals. EUROSOIL 2008, which will take place in Vienna in August, will be another opportunity to discuss EU soil policy. Fortunately there has been some progress in the policy arena as well. The French EU presidency will put the proposal for a Soil Framework Directive on the agenda.
It is currently preparing the changes in the proposed directive which are necessary in their view. As was agreed in Rotterdam a small working group of COMMON FORUM members ( as persons and not as country representatives) is assisting Jean-Luc Perrin in this process by discussing technical consequences of certain changes in the articles referring to contamination. It should be clear that this informal working group is French initiative and not a COMMON FORUM initiative. COMMON FORUM is only used as a platform for consultation. The overall objective of the French proposals is to make the contamination part in the directive more targeted and more efficient and as a consequence more effective. I do hope they will succeed. If you want more information you can contact Jean-Luc Perrin or Dominique Darmendrail.
NEXT COMMON FORUM MEETING IN TOULOUSE
The next meeting will take place in Toulouse, October 16&17. The meeting will be managed by our new secretary, Dominique Darmendrail. At present there are three topics for the agenda: The Soil Framework Directive, IPPC issues, and a discussion about policy and practice concerning a concrete site (case study discussion). Of course the organizers of the meeting will be open for suggestions, especially those from the COMMON FORUM agenda committee.
EUGRIS NEWS
Please find four attachments (PDF file - 44 KB) containing new additions to EUGRIS.
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