UNITED NATIONS E

Economic and Social Distr. GENERAL Council CEP/AC.11/2003/33/Add. 1 13 October 2003

ENGLISH ONLY

ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE

COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY Ad Hoc Preparatory Working Group of Senior Officials “Environment for Europe” Special session, Geneva, 22 October 2003 Items 3 and 4 of the provisional agenda

CHOOSING THE VENUE OF THE SIXTH MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE “ENVIRONMENT FOR EUROPE”

CANDIDATURE OF AND MONTENEGRO

Note by the Secretariat1

Venue of the Sixth Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe”

1. Item 4 of the Provisional Annotated Agenda for the Special Session of the Working Group of Senior Officials (CEP/AC.11/2003/32) invites the Working Group to consider all proposals for the venue for the next Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe” and to decide where the next Conference should be held.

2. Document CEP/AC.11/2003/33, entitled “Choosing the Venue” indicates that countries interested in hosting the Sixth Ministerial Conference should present their candidatures in writing to the secretariat by 30 September 2003.

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1 This document has not been edited formally. CEP/AC.11/2003/33/Add.1 page 2

3. As of 13 October 2003, only Serbia and Montenegro had presented its candidature. In doing so, Serbia and Montenegro has also provided a background paper that provides information on conference, interpretation, translation, photocopy, and communication facilities, security arrangements, and customs considerations, as requested in Document CEP/AC.11/2003/33. (The full text is included in the Annex to this information note.)

4. The Working Group may wish to take into consideration the candidature of Serbia and Montenegro in making its decision on the venue of the next Ministerial Conference.

Date of the Sixth Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe”

5. Item 3 of the Provisional Annotated Agenda invites the Working Group to decide the date of the next Ministerial Conference. At the Fifth (Kiev) Ministerial Conference, it was decided that future conferences should be held on a regular and predictable basis, every four or five years.

6. The Working Group may wish to decide that the Sixth Ministerial Conference be held in May 2007.

ANNEX

ISSUES OF CONCERN FOR CHOOSING THE VENUE OF THE SIXTH MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE “ENVIRONMENT FOR EUROPE”

CANDIDATURE OF SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO

Following the submission of its candidature for organizing the Sixth Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe”", submitted to United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Environment and Human Settlements Division on 29 September 2003, and the document CEP/AC.11/2003/33 - "Issues of Concern for Choosing the Venue of the Sixth Ministerial Conference Environment for Europe”, Serbia and Montenegro as candidate country is addressing a number of logistical issues, as follows:

1. Participation

Serbia and Montenegro, and the City of are capable of hosting and accommodating 3500 or more participants at the Ministerial Conference and side-events, taking in mind that a number of them are ministers, high officials of governments, European Commission, and UN System organizations. Serbia and Montenegro, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, can guarantee security and safety for all participants and guests, and especially can guarantee providing security for ministers and high officials who will participate in the Ministerial Conference.

2. Hotels

In Belgrade, which would be the host City, at the moment there are 35 hotels, of which 1 hotel, the Hyatt Regency, is rated with 5 stars, 8 hotels which are rated with 4 stars, and 13 hotels rated with 3 stars, with more than 3800 beds, and additional hotel capacities in the areas surrounding Belgrade. CEP/AC.11/2003/33/Add.1 page 3

The Host Secretariat will guarantee that it will be possible to book hotel rooms several months in advance of the conference. Belgrade could offer for accommodation of ministers and highest officials hotels of highest standard: Hyatt Regency Hotel Belgrade and Intercontinental Hotel Belgrade, which are in neighborhood of the “Sava Centar”, the modern and well-equipped congress center in Belgrade.

3. Conference facilities

The “Sava Centar” is the most prestigious congress center in Serbia and Montenegro. It is situated in the center of Belgrade, on the left bank of the river Sava, 9 km from the airport (about 15 minutes), and 5 minutes from the City Center. The “Sava Centar” can offer 15 conference halls with 7000 seats, 220 offices, a press center, printing shop, internal TV system, modern translation facilities for simultaneous translation, a large restaurant, 2 coffee bars, a bank and a post office.

The “Sava Centar” is a congress center with a long tradition and experience in organizing different events with a large number of participants, including conferences and high-level meetings, such as the Ninth Summit on Non-aligned Countries, the Conference on European Security and Cooperation, UNESCO General Assembly, Sixth UNCTAD, Fifty-fifth General Assembly of Interpol, a World Bank/IMF Annual Meeting of the Boards of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and International Monetary Fund, etc.

Besides the “Sava Centar”, Belgrade can offer the space of the , which has 14 halls and about 100.000 sq.m. of exhibition space, which could be suitable for organizing side-event exhibitions or fairs during the ministerial conference. Belgrade Fair is situated just across the Sava river – on its right bank, about 10 minutes from Sava Centar. In this moment, the City of Belgrade, is building a modern sport hall – the Arena of Belgrade, near to the “Sava Centar” which will be the most modern sport hall and is also suitable for holding bigger meetings or plenary sessions, although the biggest hall of “Sava Centar”– the Blue Hall – can host 3725 persons.

The “Sava Centar” is connected by pedestrian bridge with the hotel Inter-Continental Belgrade, rated with 4 stars, which can offer rooms and suites of high standard for participants in the meeting. At a distance of about 300 meters from the “Sava Centar” is situated the Hyatt Regency Hotel Belgrade, which is also a hotel of highest standard.

4. Host secretariat services

The Council of Ministers of State Union of Serbia and Montenegro has already established a inter- ministerial coordinating body with representatives of the Ministry for Protection of Environment and Spatial Planning of the Republic of Montenegro, the Ministry for Protection of Natural Resources and Environment of the Republic of Serbia, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia and Montenegro, for coordinating technical organizational question for hosting the Sixth Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe”. If Serbia and Montenegro were to be chosen as host country, it would form a Host Secretariat that could and would meet all requirements set up in the related document, as well as all requests by the UNECE Secretariat.

CEP/AC.11/2003/33/Add.1 page 4

5. Communications needs

Serbia and Montenegro, and especially the “Sava Centar” as proposed venue for holding a meeting, can provide all requested communication needs. As mentioned in issue 3 - the “Sava Centar” has modern equipped offices for participants of conferences and meetings. There is also the possibility for providing additional land phone lines, pay-card telephones and fax machines as well as additional computers with email connections. Local cell phones (at the moment, in Serbia there are 2 mobile-phone networks) will be provided for UNECE and host secretariats. It is also possible to organize a pigeonhole system, an internal system for announcing urgent messages and all others communication facilities.

6. Photocopy needs

Serbia and Montenegro will foresee in its budget, and will provide printing of all Category I documents prior to the Conference, and it can also arrange a photocopy center for rapidly making of copies during the Conference. As mentioned in issue 3 - the Sava Centar has a modern equipped printing shop, and if necessary, additional photocopy machines can be provided, as well as staff.

7. Interpretation

The Host secretariat will provide simultaneous interpretation in all three official languages of UNECE: English, French, and Russian, as well as for all other languages. The Association of interpreters of Serbia, the biggest association of interpreters with great experience, has more than 5000 members who can provide interpretation and translation, written and simultaneous in every required language. The Host secretariat will provide that teams of interpreters will be on-call 24 hours per day. The Sava Centar has modern interpretation facilities – each conference room is equipped with interpretation facilities that provide simultaneous interpretation for 3 to 10 languages in the same time. It would be also possible to provide interpretation equipment in any other space upon request.

8. Translation

The Host secretariat, with reference to issues mentioned in the paragraph above, will provide a team of translators capable of translating documents prepared during the Conference.

9. Security

Serbia and Montenegro, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, can guarantee security and safety for all participants and guests, and especially can guarantee security for ministers and high officials who will participate in the Ministerial Conference. Hotels of high quality also guarantee security of their guests.

10. Customs

Serbia and Montenegro guarantee that it will make arrangements that will ensure that all printed and electronic materials that are sent into the country for official purposes, exhibitions and side events will be delivered in a timely matter and without additional cost and tax expenses.