Previous Committee Decisions

29 COM 7B.67, 30 COM 7B.87, 31 COM 7B.114

Previous monitoring missions

2001: World Heritage Centre / ICOMOS / IUCN mission; November 2003: World Heritage Centre mission

Main threats identified in previous reports

1. Potential pollution from the oil exploitation of the D-6 oil field in the Baltic Sea by the Russian Federation;
2. Lack of bilateral cooperation between Lithuania and the Russian Federation including joint assessment of environmental impact of the D-6 project;
3. Impacts of sewage spill accident which took place at Klaipeda Water Treatment Station.

Decision: 32 COM 7B.98

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC-08/32.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decision 29 COM 7B.67, 30 COM 7B.87, 31 COM 7B.114, adopted at its 29th session (Durban, 2005), 30th (Vilnius, 2006) and 31st (Christchurch, 2007) sessions respectively;
3. Welcomes the continued collaboration between both States Parties and progress made in the Joint Lithuanian-Russian Post-project Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the D-6 oil platform, in the bilateral "Agreement Concerning Co-operation in Case of Pollution accidents, Pollution Prevention, Mitigation and Compensation Measures" and in the joint "Lithuanian and Russian Action Plan for Co-operation in Case of Pollution accidents in the Baltic Sea", and encourages them to continue bilateral environmental monitoring;
4. Regrets the delay in signing the above agreements and urges both States Parties to sign the Agreement and Action Plan and to initiate their implementation as a matter of urgency;
5. Notes the additional information provided by the State Party of Lithuania on other current conservation issues identified in conformity with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines and requests the State Party of Lithuania to take into account the Outstanding Universal Value and integrity of the property when examining cases of possibly illegal constructions in Court, and to keep the World Heritage Centre informed on any progress on these issues;
6. Also requests both States Parties to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2010, a detailed and updated report, on the issues mentioned above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 34th session in 2010.