EU’s WECOOP project to continue support for sustainable development and circular economy in CA

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM The European Union (EU) renewed the project «European Union – Central Asia Water, Environment and Climate Change Cooperation» (WECOOP) in October 2019. It is the third phase of the project and the new phase is intended to run for three years.

The project aims to enhance environment, climate change and water policies at national levels in Central Asia through approximation to EU standards and to promote investments in relevant sectors with the aim of contributing to measurable reductions in man-made pollution, including CO2 emission, the official website of the EU Delegation to Kazakhstan reads.

The project activities will include support to the EU-Central Asia Platform for Environment and Water Cooperation (the Platform) and the EU-Central Asia Working Group on Environment and Climate Change (the WGECC). The latter includes representatives of the European Commission’s Directorates General for Environment and Climate Action and is currently chaired by the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea.

The priorities for the Platform were first agreed at the third EU-Central Asia High-Level Conference in Rome in 2009 and subsequently confirmed at the High-Level Conferences in Bishkek (2013) and Milan (2015). Most recently, the EU–Central Asia High-Level Conference on Environment and Water Cooperation held in Tashkent on 24-25 January 2019 identified the following priority areas for consultations and cooperation: a) environmental governance, circular economy and sustainable consumption and production; b) climate change adaptation and mitigation; c) water resources management.

WECOOP will support the development, effectiveness and visibility of the Platform through regular high-level meetings and joint expert working groups or other ad-hoc events. The project team will function as the technical secretariat of the Platform and the WGECC and will be responsible for practical organisation of the meetings. It consists of the following members: Mr Valts Vilnitis, Key Expert 1 and Team Leader, Mr Anatoly Krutov, Key Expert 2 for Environment Governance and Climate Change Capacity Development, and Mr Vladislav Bizek, Key Expert 3 for EU Acquis and Environment Enforcement.

The project website is currently being upgraded and will be relaunched shortly. It will contain detailed information about WECOOP, project documents, news and activities, as well as documents about the previous projects currently available at https://wecoop2.eu(link is external).