Brussels, 05/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - The conclusions adopted on Monday by the Environment Council on Community sustainable development strategy are the EU15 Environment Ministers' contribution to the European Council of Barcelona on 15 and 16 March, which marks a decisive stage towards the world summit on sustainable development (Johannesburg, this September). Invited to join the Council lunch, the ministers of the environment of candidate countries took part in the informal exchange of views on the internal and external aspects of this strategy with a view to jointly preparing the summit in Johannesburg.
In its conclusions addressed to the Barcelona Summit, which is called upon to assess progress made in implementing the Community strategy defined one year ago by the Gothenburg Summit for adding an environment pillar to the Lisbon Process, the Council focuses on the environmental dimension. It deplores the fact that it is still the poor relation of this strategy compared to the economic and social dimensions. Expressing regret that the Commission's report on the "Lisbon Strategy - a successful change" does not sufficiently take this environmental dimension into account, the Council requests that this should be put right before the next edition, and stresses the need to move from strategy to action.
The Council reaffirms the importance of pursuing and intensifying the integration process of environmental concerns in all sectoral policies of the Union and stresses the key role given to the European Council in the establishment, follow-up and promotion of guidelines for the integration process. It recalls the need to immediately and effectively implement the strategies developed in the various Council formations (the last to date will be those of the Ecofin and General Affairs Councils on 5 and 11 March). In this respect, it considers that the Directive 2001/42 on the impact assessment of certain environmental plans and programmes should constitute a major instrument for a successful integration process. The Council invites the Commission to set in place, as soon as possible, the assessment system for sustainability that it plans to present before the end of the year. Concerning the sustainable development indicators allowing assessment to be made of progress achieved, the Council regrets that the Commission has not been able to indicate the date when the data and methodologies will be available for finalising new indicators. It therefore invites the Commission, Eurostat, the European Environment Agency and the Member Sates to develop indicators relating to public health (linked especially to chemical products), and to the management of natural resources (mainly water, aquatic and land biodiversity and the use of resources) in order to be able to approve, in the autumn, the indicators that should be taken into account during the next summary report. The Council calls on the Barcelona Summit to establish a fair balance between the environmental, social and economic indicators.
The Council also stresses the interest held by the development and the use of technologies that are economical in their use of natural resources and also environment-friendly, in order to generate growth and employment and to promote consumer trends and sustainable production models as well as uncouple economic growth from the use of resources. The Commission's intention to finalise an action plan in order to tackle the obstacles opposed to the take-off of clean technologies seems, the Council says, to be a very good thing. The Council considers it important for the candidate countries to take into account the policies and aims of Community strategy in order to be able to appear in the next Commission summary report, in 2003.
According to the Council, the future priorities should be: - full integration of concerns linked to the protection and conservation of biodiversity in all sectors and activities, and the implementation of action plans concerning the conservation of natural resources, agriculture, fisheries, economic cooperation and development; - the effective implementation of Community policy for the conservation of biodiversity (completion of the Natura 2000 network and protection of the species targeted by the Habitat and Wild Birds Directives); - measures to promote a just and equitable breakdown of advantages to be gained from the use of genetic resources; - additional measures such as the prevention, control and eradication of "invading" species likely to cause serious damage to biological diversity; - and the adoption and implementation of measures to safeguard biodiversity in forests and other important ecosystems, through the establishment of international ecological networks.
In its conclusions on the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Environment Council recalls that sustainable development calls for global solutions to draw the fruits of globalisation. Stressing that the Community's internal and external policies of sustainable development are inextricably linked, it reaffirms the need to implement the internal strategy to tackle global environmental problems, taking account of the effects of Union policies on the rest of the world. The Council approves the Commission's communication "Towards a Global Partnership for Sustainable Development" and stresses the major role the Union should play in Johannesburg, the priority being that the Summit kick-starts action to provide body to Agenda 21, the Doha Development Agenda, the Monterrey Conference on financing development and the goals of the Millennium declaration. To act on its commitment to global sustainable development, the Council recommends that the Union: - promote sustainable modes of consumption and production; - integrate developing countries in the world economy and guarantee that trade policies and investment flows contribute to sustainable development; - promote strategic partnerships for sustainable development, in co-operation with international organisations, governments, civil society and the private sector.