{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2011-429/article-4",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2011-429/article-4.json",
  "legislation": "eudn/2011/429",
  "legislation_title": "Council Decision 2011/429/CFSP of 18 July 2011 relating to the position of the European Union for the Seventh Review Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on the prohibition of the development, production and stockpiling of bacteriological (biological) and toxin weapons and on their destruction (BTWC)",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2011-429",
  "path": "article/4",
  "kind": "article",
  "number": "4",
  "heading": null,
  "text": "In order to strengthen compliance with the BTWC, the Union shall promote:\n(a) measures related to CBM declarations:\n(i) examining annual CBM declarations as the regular national declaration tool on implementation and compliance and developing them further with this objective in mind;\n(ii) increasing the quality of CBM declarations by:\nreducing to the largest extent possible the complexity of CBM forms and removing potential ambiguities. The detailed and concrete proposals for the modification of the CBM are based on the reports of the Geneva Forum Workshop,\nsupporting the compilation of the information provided in the CBM forms. To that end, the Union would support the ISU playing a greater role in supporting the national points of contact and the national authorities responsible for ensuring compliance. This support could include elements such as setting up a reference library, a ‘helpdesk’-function, providing the CBM forms in several languages, introducing an electronic format, and giving regional seminars for national points of contact,\nintroducing incentives for CBM submission, such as integrating details about Article X of the BTWC related information into the CBM mechanism (using the current form D or creating a new form);\n(iii) increasing relevance and comprehensiveness of CBM forms by:\nreferring to all relevant Articles of the BTWC, taking into careful account the need to achieve an appropriate balance between providing useful information and the effort required to obtain it. This is to avoid increasing complexity and workload, which could potentially deter participation,\nmodifying the CBM via a possible two-step approach, the modifications that would need further examination being left to a new intersessional process;\n(b) measures related to the UN Secretary-General’s mechanism for investigation of alleged use of biological and toxin weapons; reaffirming the need for the States Parties to ensure the effectiveness of the provisions of that mechanism and to take practical steps to this end, such as providing support for training programmes, and developing an analytical laboratory system.",
  "extent": "E+W+S+N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2011/429/article/4",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-11-01T15:15:44.347739+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}