# Council Decision (CFSP) 2019/2108 of 9 December 2019 in support of strengthening biological safety and security in Latin America in line with the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540 (2004) on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, Division 3.1: Description

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

Our proposal aims to improve biosafety and biosecurity in beneficiary countries, in line with UNSCR 1540 (2004), and to further increase beneficiary states’ capacity to effectively anticipate and respond to large-scale incidents involving a biological agents, whether man-made or naturally occurring. The Project also would serve to improve interagency and international cooperation and information-sharing among OAS Member States in order to prepare for and respond to biological incidents. In addition, the Project seeks to address legislative gaps that currently exist in some of the target countries and complement efforts to implement the BWC.
The Project will bring together the responsible national authorities of up to eight OAS Member States, appropriate representatives of the private sector and civil society, and qualified international experts, to explore steps that can be taken to ensure improved biosafety and biosecurity capabilities in those states and, more broadly, in the OAS region. The Project will employ a two-pronged approach that incorporates both national and sub‐regional activities. The Project will seek to leverage the Secretariat’s prior experience working on these matters in the Americas, along with its well-established network of contacts and partners (especially in the public sector). National-level efforts will focus on working with individual OAS Member States to enhance national capacities, draft legislation and regulations and develop country-specific action plans for strengthening operational capabilities.
At the regional level, the capacity building activities will focus on promoting the exchange of information and good practices, as well as on defining the structural, substantive, and functional parameters from a regional approach.
Furthermore, the Project will seek to leverage a ‘peer review’ process which has been developed in recent years, under which States voluntarily agree to work together to assess their mutual strengths and weakness in implementing 1540 obligations and to identify effective practices and areas for continued bilateral cooperation. Following recent successful 1540 peer review exercises between Chile and Colombia (2017), the Dominican Republic and Panama (2019) and most recently Paraguay and Uruguay (2019), we are proposing to provide specific follow-up assistance and cooperation activities for these three sets of countries. In doing so, we would seek to follow up on the close bilateral ties forged between these States during the peer review process and would seek to further promote these countries’ demonstrated commitment to continuing 1540 cooperation beyond the initial peer review exercises. We would also propose to promote additional peer review exercises in the region, with a strong focus on biosafety and biosecurity for countries that have not yet undertaken such exercises, such as Mexico and potentially other partners in the region. Finally we would seek to revisit existing peer review processes to promote and enhance the continued cooperation between the countries, promote best practices and promote the practice of publishing technical papers (in addition to the final reports submitted by the States) to capture the advances made in these forums.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2019/2108/annex/division/3/division/3.1 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2019-2108/annex/division-3/division-3.1
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.