• The POPs Convention and the POPs Protocol are implemented in the European Union through Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 (or "POPs Regulation") of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on persistent organic pollutants.
• Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 has been published as a recast of EC Regulation No 850/2004.

• Treaty negotiated under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
• Building on the 1998 Aarhus Protocol, the Stockholm Convention raised the profile of POPs to the global level.

First meeting of the INC to:

• Develop an internationally legally binding instrument for implementing international action on POPs.
• Establish the Criteria Expert Group (CEG).

The UNEP Governing Council in its decision 19/13C:

• Invited UNEP to prepare for and convene intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC), with a mandate to prepare an international legally binding instrument for implementing international action initially beginning with the 12 POPs.
• Requested that the INC establish an expert group to develop criteria and a procedure for identifying additional POPs as candidates for future international action.

IFCS concluded that available information was sufficient to demonstrate that international action, including a global legally binding instrument, was required to minimize the risks from the 12 POPs through measures to reduce and/or eliminate their emissions or discharges.

The Governing Council of UNEP (UN Environment Programme) requested in its decision 18/32 that:

• An international assessment process be undertaken of an initial list of 12 POPs.
• The Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) develop recommendations on international action for consideration by UNEP Governing Council and World Health Assembly no later than 1997.