Brussels, 27/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's Committee on the Environment intends to have the environmental dimension of the Community's sustainable development strategy strengthened and placed on an equal footing with economic growth and social cohesion, in conformity with the direction fixed just one year ago by the European Council in Gothenburg. The plenary debate on Wednesday in Brussels on the Barcelona summit, where progress made by the Union towards achieving its objectives will be assessed, will be an opportunity for expectations to be expressed. In a draft resolution submitted in conclusion of this debate, Caroline Jackson (British Conservative), Chair of the environment committee, invites the plenary to follow its recommendations, on Thursday. She mainly stresses that, in order to assess progress made, it is important to define more indicators, together with clear objectives and timetables. In her view, this is especially important in the field of biotechnology. Ms Jackson considers the Parliament must make a systematic contribution to the progress assessment exercise in this field by devoting a debate to this subject each year, in February, with a view to the European spring summit. The Environment Council, for its part, should in future play a more visible role in these annual assessments. Given that sustainable development is also on the international agenda at the UN-organised world summit (Johannesburg, September 2002), the resolution therefore calls for organisation of a joint conference of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe in order to coordinate preparatory work.
Amendments will be presented in plenary, in order to strengthen the text. They will call for: - the setting in place of an indicator allowing progress made to be measured in an attempt to break the link between economic growth and exhaustion of natural resources; - the fixing of clear objectives to reverse the tendencies identified as running counter to sustainable development. A joint amendment from the PES, ELDR Greens/EFA and EDD groups (slimly adopted in committee by 29 votes to 28) calls, moreover, for the European Commission not to grant any financial allocation to development in Europe of non-sustainable water-management systems such as the Spanish hydrological plan.