On 23 November 2011 Serbia ratified the UNECE Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs) to the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention). Since the adoption of the Protocol in 2003, 38 States have become Signatories to the Protocol and with the ratification by Serbia there are now 28 Parties to the Protocol.
Since the first session of the Meeting of the Parties to the PRTR Protocol (Geneva,
20–22 April 2010), three States have become parties: Slovenia, on 23 April 2010; the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, on 2 November 2010; and Serbia, on 23 November
2011.
The Protocol is the first legally binding international instrument on pollutant release and transfer registers. Its objective is "to enhance public access to information through the establishment of coherent, nationwide PRTRs." PRTRs are inventories of pollution from industrial sites and other sources.
Although regulating information on pollution, rather than pollution directly, the Protocol is expected to exert a significant downward pressure on levels of pollution, as no company will want to be identified as among the biggest polluters.
All States can participate in the Protocol, including those which not ratified the Aarhus Convention and those which are not members of the Economic Commission for Europe. It is by design an 'open' global protocol.
Although the period for signature of the Protocol closed on 31 December 2003, the Protocol is open for accession (from 1 January 2004) by States and regional economic integration organizations constituted by sovereign States members of the United Nations to which their member States have transferred competence over matters governed by this Protocol (articles 24 and 26).
The Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers was adopted at an extraordinary meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention on 21 May 2003. The meeting took place in the framework of the fifth Ministerial Conference 'Environment for Europe', Kiev, 21-23 May 2003. Thirty-six member States and the European Community signed the Protocol in Kiev.
