Memorandum of Understanding signed between CETI and RECETOX
The Center for Toxic Compounds in the Environment – RECETOX at the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, which serves as the Regional Center for the Stockholm Convention on Capacity Building and Technology Transfer in Eastern and Central Europe, represented by Kateřina Šebková, Director of the Regional Center for the Stockholm Convention, and the Center for Ecotoxicological Research Podgorica d.o.o. (CETI), represented by Mr. Zoran Vučinić, Executive Director, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”) on October 7, 2024, to collaborate on the implementation of the Stockholm Convention, research, and sustainable management of chemicals in Europe and Africa.
The focus of this collaboration is ambient air sampling at existing or new sites within the MONET network to support the fourth phase of the Global Monitoring Plan (GMP) for Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) under the Stockholm Convention. The MONET network, established in 2003, is a monitoring program managed by RECETOX aimed at tracking toxic chemicals across various environmental segments (ambient air, water, soil, precipitation, biota), contributing air quality data for several global agreements, such as the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution. CETI participated in the first phase of the GMP and is now rejoining the global team after several years.
This MoU will provide essential data for the successful implementation of the Stockholm Convention on POPs, reduce the existing data gap regarding the presence of POPs in ambient air in Central and Eastern Europe and/or the African continent, help establish a baseline for the presence, spatial and temporal trends of organic pollutants in ambient air globally, and facilitate further scientific collaboration between CETI and Masaryk University.