Project period: 01.10.2010- 31.05. 2012

Objectives:

• to provide input to the COHIBA project respectively, to facilitate the COHIBA outcomes to Russian stakeholders and thus to contribute to implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Plan

• it aims at providing assistance and input to the currently ongoing development process of new legal requirements within the upcoming new policy of the (administrative) region St. Petersburg called “Strategy for radiation, chemical and biological safety”

Project activites:

• An inventory of measures for control of hazardous substances in SPB has been carried out with a first qualitative and quantitative evaluation of these measures (if possible also with regard to their cost-effectiveness);
• The St. Petersburg regional draft law on Radiation, Chemicals and Biological Safety has been commented by the German, Estonian and Latvian experts (the chemicals parts) and proposals were made for improvement/gap/solutions;
• Ideas have been generated in a meeting what could to be done with help of international exchange to set up a better information system for the occurrence of the target substances including a set of measures for industries;
• Harmonisation of the Russian chemicals management system has been backstopped by recommendations from the western partners and the glossary of terms has been expanded (no regional limitation);
• The awareness is grown in Russia (Petersburg target region of the project) on chemical control measures and the release patterns of different substances as basis for decision making on controls for hazardous substances as basis for HELCOM BSAP implementation. Grown awareness is monitored by self-evaluation based on questionnaires/interviews with key stakeholders of the target region SPb (competent authorities).
• The recommendations elaborated by the COHIBA team are discussed and approved by the Russian stakeholders.
• The understanding among EU and Russian stakeholders (SPB and region) of each others’ chemicals and hazardous substance management systems, concepts and concerns has been improved by active experience exchange and dialogue seminars.

Project results:

• Inventory of existing measures and the legal background in St. Petersburg (analogue to COHIBA Inventory of Measures).
• Report on the evaluation of measures for 11 substances for SPB region
• Recommendations for improvements of measures targeted at the 11 substances (based on and complimentary to COHIBA guidance documents);
• Inventory report from pilot investigations on the use of specific hazardous substances in target industries;
• Recommendation for regulatory options (elaborated by Russian experts from the project partner organizations in dialogue with German/Baltic partners) for the new legislation;
• List of activities needed for the harmonisation of the Russian legislation on hazardous substances with the EU standard;
• Electronic glossary of terms – update, extension;
• Reports from project meetings and seminars;
• Project partners’ web sites in Russia: publication of project outputs, documents and reports in Russian language for the stakeholders in Russia (Beyond SPB region);

Applicant: BEF-Germany

Partners:
–BEF Latvia
–BEF Estonia
–Fraunhofer ISI
–Environmental Committee St. Petersburg
–TOKSI, scientific insitute , St. Petersburg
–Russian Federal Chemicals Union, Moscow
–Cleaner Production Centre NW Russia, St. Petersburg
–CTC Center for Transboundary Cooperation St. Petersburg

The project is supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, and on whose behalf, the Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt)