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The Montreal Protocol was a protocol negotiated by the contracting parties to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer in a bid to take collective and practical steps to combat the problem of ozone-layer destruction. The protocol was signed by 118 parties, including the European Community, now the European Union, and by the end of 2002 every single party that signed the protocol had ratified it. Sections of the protocol made special provisions for the developing country parties to the convention. Parties also agreed on a number of technical assistance measures to enable developing country parties to phase out the production and use of the chemicals in question in the shortest possible time. Multilateral Environmental Agreements are internationally negotiated agreements designed to protect various aspects of the environment. However, since 1972 there has been dramatic growth in the number of multilateral environmental agreements.