The Stockholm Convention and Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 on persistent organic pollutants aim to "protect human health and the environment by adopting measures to reduce or eliminate emissions and discharges of persistent organic pollutants" and therefore oblige Member States to take the necessary measures to identify, reduce or eliminate releases of POPs into the environment. They further oblige these countries to develop an action plan detailing progress in implementing these obligations.
The National Implementation Plan (Plan national de mise en oeuvre - PNMO) presents the POPs situation in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and describes the measures that are envisaged by Luxembourg to reduce POPs releases according to the objectives of the Convention and the Regulation. It provides a series of actions and measures in different areas such as the continued systematic application of best available techniques, the adaptation and periodic evaluation of monitoring programmes and a proactive information of the public.
National implementation plan for the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants - 2015
The PNMO focuses mainly on unintentionally produced POPs that are of higher importance in Luxembourg. These pollutants are substances such as dioxins and furans, PCBs, hexachlorobenzene or pentachlorobenzene that can form during thermal processes, such as combustion/incineration and industrial processes.
An update of the PNMO is currently in progress.
Luxembourg signed the Convention on 23 May 2001 and approved it by the Law of 8 January 2003 approving the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, made in Stockholm on 22 May 2001. The Convention was ratified on 7 February 2003 by Luxembourg.
Related Grand-Ducal Decrees:
More details are available in the related PNMO chapters indicated in the previous section “National Implementation Plan (PNMO)”.
A law transposes certain implementing rules and sanctions of the POPs Regulation: the law of 11 March 2020 laying down certain implementing provisions and sanctions of Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on persistent organic pollutants. According to Article 1 of this law, "The competent authority responsible for coordinating the administrative tasks provided for in Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 [...] is the Minister having the Environment in his or her powers [...]. The competent authority responsible for carrying out the administrative tasks provided for in Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 in relation to Articles 3 to 13 is the Environmental Administration."
Note: This law replaces the law of 12 May 2011 laying down certain implementing provisions and sanctions of Regulation (EC) No 850/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on persistent organic pollutants and amending Directive 79/117/EEC