BALTIC SEAENVIRONMENT PROCEEDINGS No. 59 - Helcom

international bodies, with assistance and co-ordination by the
Executive Director of the United Nations Environment
Programme, support for those Parties which request technical
assistance for:
(a) the training of scientific and technical personnel;
(b) the supply of necessary equipment and facilities for
reception and monitoring;
(c) the facilitation of other measures and arrangements
to prevent or mitigate pollution of the marine
environment by ships; and
(d) the encouragement of research; preferably within the
countries concerned, so furthering the aims and
purposes of the present Convention.
On a national level, legislation is one of the main elements
of integrated waste management. The preparation and
implementation of legislation and regulations is one of the
key tasks of Governments.
Considerations such as the constitution of the individual
country concerned, whether it is a Unitarian state or a
federation, and the distribution of administrative powers have
a strong influence both on the extent to which legislation on
waste management is possible and the form in which legislation
can be made, implemented and enforced. The economic situation
of the country may be an equally limiting factor for the
effectiveness of the legislation.
Waste handling legislation can be addressed at different
administrative levels, each with their respective regulations.
MARPOL does not prescribe how wastes should be handled and
treated, once they have been delivered to a reception
facility. Additional regulations on national level and/or
lower levels of authority is therefore required to ensure
environmentally sound processing and disposal of wastes.
National legislation should serve the following purposes with
respect to MARPOL:
1. it should connect MARPOL with regional agreements (if
applicable), national law and local regulations and give
effect to the provisions of the Convention, including its
protocols, annexes and appendices;
2. it should focus on how to implement and enforce the
MARPOL 73/78 Convention once the Convention has been
ratified;
3. it should give the appropriate authority the power to
enforce the legislation that incorporates the
requirements of the Convention and its Annexes;
4. it should set general policy and grant power to the
appropriate authority to issue detailed regulations.
The basic principles of the waste management strategy should
be reflected in the legislative framework that will be
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