Austria

Legal requirements:

a) a decision by the Council of Ministers

b) a decision by both Chambers of Parliament

c) involvement of the 9 Bundesländer (Regional governments) and no negative statement by any of the Bundesländer, as the implementation of the KP falls partly within the competence of the Bundesländer according to the Austrian consititution.

Political requirements:

the positive conclusion of a COP laying down rules for the mechanisms, sinks and compliance which are acceptable to Austria, and a decision on the national strategy for the implementation of the KP.

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Belgium

Legal requirements:

The federal authority and the three regions have to give their consent to be bound by the Protocol.

Political requirements:

Substantial progress towards the adoption of CCPMs is a condition for agreeing with the conclusion by the Community of the KP.

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Commission

Legal requirements: a Council decision for ratification by the EC.

Political requirements:

- international agreement on the rules and modalities for the implementation of the Protocol;

- implementing measures to enable fulfilment of the obligations of the Protocol by the EC.

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Denmark

Legal requirements:

Consent of the Parliament is needed in order to enable the government to ratify the KP. Statements from the homerules of the Faroe Islands and Greenland should be obtained before the reading in Danish Parliament.

Political requirements:

Simultaneous ratification by other Member States and the European Community

The Danish position concerning the correction of base year emissions for electricity import should be accomodated

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France

France will table its instrument of approval at the same time as the other Member States, by notifying simultaneously the burden sharing of emissions reductions.

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Finland

Legal requirements: The Protocol has to be approved by the Parliament. The final decision to ratify or accept the Protocol is taken by the President of the Republic. Necessary that a legal character shall be given to the burden-sharing instrument, and that the Community and the MS deposit their instruments of ratification simultaneously with a notification of the terms of the burden-sharing instrument.

Political requirements: Important that CCPMs will be further developed and implemented at the Community level.

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Germany

The Protocol would have constitutionally to meet full approval by Parliament, that is both chambers. In particular the approval process of the representation of the federal Länder can be time consuming but most probably will not be to extensive in this case.

Greece

Legal requirements: The Greek Parliament must do the ratification of the KP.

Political requirements: A prerequisite for the ratification is the formulation of a National Action Plan (NAP) for the reduction of GHG emissions according to the targets specified for Greece under the burden-sharing agreement.

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Italy

Legal requirements:  Required positive consensus by different administrations involved in the KP.

Political requirements: Positive concensus needed by the political commissions of the Parliament.

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Irland

Legal and Constitutional Requirements:

- Government Decision would have to be sought for the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and burden sharing agreement following inter-Ministerial consultations. 

- The terms of the agreement would have to be approved by Parliament.

Political  Requirements:

- Consensus in the Environment Council that the time is ripe for ratification by all Member States together in accordance with the provisions of Article 4 and the finalisation of the formal burden sharing agreement and the finalisation of the EC Declaration of Competence for the purposes of Article 24.3 of the Protocol.  Irish agreement within this consensus will require political agreement at COP 6 bis, and the carrying through of this agreement into formal Decisions texts of the COP.

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Luxembourg

Approval by Parliament

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Netherlands

- approval by the Parliament

- the completion of CoP 6+

- ratification by other MS of the EU and the EC at the same time

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Portugal

Political requirements:

- Definition of a comprehensive compliance system with clear consequences for non-compliance;

- Implementation of clear and effective rules for the three Kyoto mechanisms;

- Environmental credibility should be ensured in the implementation of the strategies for domestic action primarily through the adoption of relevant policies and measures at national level, complemented with the use of the Kyoto mechanisms. Considering the contribution to the ultimate objective of the Convention and to sustainable development, a set of project activities must be agreed to give due priority to the prompt start of CDM.

- The environmental integrity of the Protocol must be safeguarded with a guaranty that sinks are handled in such a way as to ensure a real net reduction in the overall greenhouse gas emissions of the Annex I countries.

Legal requirements:  General need of the national competent authority to demonstrate that the implementation of the Protocol corresponds with the Government Programme and the relevant EU policies.

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Sweden

Legal requirements:

- agreement on basic principles by COP (translation into legal text is not necessary)

- approval by Parliament

Political requirements:

Simultaneous ratification by other MS and the EC

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Spain

Legal requirements:

- Ratification reports of all the Departments that are involved.

- The Consejo de Estado study the treaty and the reports and decides whether the Parliament should authorise the ratification.

- The Council of Ministers approves the “ad referendum” signature and, eventually, sends the treaty to the Parliament. The Kyoto Protocol will need the previous authorisation from the Parliament, a compulsory step that makes the whole procedure longer.

- Once the Parliament has authorised the ratification, the instrument of ratification will be elaborated and ready for its deposit.

Political requirements:

Spain prefers to start the ratification process once it is clear that it will be able to deliver what has been promised. It is difficult, under the current situation, to define clearly which are the commitments from the Kyoto Protocol, and how they will be fulfilled within the EU.

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United Kingdom

All the legal powers must be in place to give effect to the provisions of the Protocol. This means that we must have published and implemented a programme of measures to deliver our Kyoto target and have the necessary domestic legislation in place.

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