Structure of the process

Ad Hoc Preparatory Working Group of Senior Officials

The Working Group of Senior Officials (WGSO) is an intergovernmental group created for the express purpose of preparing for upcoming Ministerial Conferences "Environment for Europe" and for coordinating the follow-up response. Each Working Group of Senior Officials is established by the UNECE Committee on Environmental Policy upon the recommendations of the Ministerial Conferences.

UNECE serves as the secretariat to the Working Group. WGSO closely cooperates with: European Environment Agency, the Council of Europe, the European Commission, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Europe (WHO/EURO), Regional Environmental Centers and other international organizations and institutions, international non-governmental and private sector organizations.

The Working Group of Senior Officials is open to participation of all member States of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

The Executive Committee of the Working Group of Senior Officials

Executive Committee serves as the Bureau of the Working Group of Senior Officials. Executive Committee is composed of representatives of eight UNECE member States, including one from South-Eastern Europe (the host country); two from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, one from North America and four from other UNECE member States.

Other participants in the Executive Committee are: the Chair of the UNECE Committee on Environmental Policy, one of the co-Chairs of the OECD Task Force for the Implementation of the Environmental Action Programme (EAP Task Force), the Chair of the Project Preparation Committee (PPC), and the Chair of the Council for the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy; a representative of the Presidency of the European Union, a senior representative of the European Commission, a senior representative of EcoForum and one senior representative from the regional environmental centres.

More information about other participants could be found here.