Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is termed as one of the best policy innovations in the 1900s. The main aim of EIA is to conserve the environment and bring out the best combination of economic and environmental costs and benefits. EIA is a process through which an environmental impact of a proposed development is evaluated. The 1991 Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (the Espoo Convention) was negotiated under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) and was signed in Espoo, Finland, in 1991. Following six meetings of the signatories, the Convention entered into force in 1997 and the first Meeting of the Parties (MoP) took place in Oslo in 1998. The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Protocol to the Convention was adopted in 2003, and has been signed by thirty-six States as well as by the EC. The Bureau of the Convention was established as an organ to co-ordinate the work pertaining to the development of the system of the Convention between the Meetings of the Parties. As of April 2014, the treaty had been ratified by 44 state and European Union. Convention has adopted many important decisions pertaining to the institutional structure of the Espoo Convention.