Biosafety: transfer, handling and use of living modified organisms, Cartagena Protocol

PURPOSE : to approve, on behalf of the Community, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. COMMUNITY MEASURE : Council Decision 2002/628/EC concerning the conclusion, on behalf of the European Community, of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. CONTENT : the Council adopted a Decision approving the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety on behalf of the Community. The Member States, which must also ratify the Protocol at national level, undertook to take all necessary measures to finalise their ratification procedures as soon as possible. This Decision will enable the European Union - which would like to ensure that as much progress as possible is made with regard to all the major Conventions resulting from the 1992 Rio Conference - to inform the World Conference on Sustainable Development taking place in Johannesburg from 26 August to 4 September 2002 that its ratification procedure has been completed. Finalised in Montreal in January 2000 and linked to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), the Protocol is an environmental agreement covering, among other issues, the identification and labelling of living modified organisms (LMOs) and the transboundary movements of such organisms.�