Brussels, 23/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - Regional co-operation in terms of protecting the Danube and the Black Sea will get a boost at the informal meeting in Brussels on 26 November between the region's Environment Ministers and the Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström. The action plan drawn up by the Commission will be presented at the meeting with the aim of rekindling environmental co-operation in restoring the ecological balance of this heavily polluted region which has taken on increased geopolitical importance in the run-up to an enlarged European Union (see Commission's Communication in EUROPE on 1 November, p.12).
The meeting is expected to lead to the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding between the international committee for protection of the Black Sea (currently chaired by Bulgaria); and the publishing of a ministerial declaration making a political commitment to do more to improve water quality, for example, by setting up a common working group as proposed by the Commission
The following countries will be taking part in the meeting: Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Georgia, Hungary, Moldavia, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, the Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Germany, Austria and Italy.