Recital 3

(3)In view of its responsibilities for the protection of the environment, the Union approved on 19 February 2004 the Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution on Persistent Organic Pollutants ⁴ (‘the Protocol’) and approved on 14 October 2004 the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants ⁵ (‘the Convention’).