17th regional meeting of National Authorities of states parties of the OPCW in Eastern Europe was held in Prague from 7 to 9 May. 20 representatives of National Authorities have participated on this meeting together with 13 representatives of stakeholders from various countries (chemical industry, customs, ministries), 5 experts from the OPCW partner organizations and 4 representatives of the OPCW. Main topic of the meeting was cooperation between National Authority and chemical industry as a key partner for fulfilling obligations of the Chemical Weapons Convention. The industrial organizations (manufacturers or distributors) are important sources of information for declarations and resolving of transfer discrepancies regarding trade with scheduled chemicals for most of the countries in the region. During panel discussion representatives of OPCW partner organizations RACVIAC, ICCA, WCO and OSCE presented their cooperation with the OPCW on discussed and other relevant topics. This meeting was agreed to be productive and was evaluated very positively by all of participants.
