Brussels, 08/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - Three weeks from the last preparatory meeting of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (in Bali, end May/early June), the conference organised by the Greens/EFA of the European Parliament on the theme "How to avoid failure in Johannesburg" bears witness to the determination of this political group to be actively involved in preparing its contribution to the Summit (26 August-4 September). They fear it may be undermined by the lack of political determination shown by the governments at the preparatory meeting in New York. Although criticism is not spared regarding the United States, Canada, Australia and the oil producing countries, the European Union also receives its share of reproach for having, under WTO leadership, subscribed to the predominance of deregulated free trade which, say the Greens/EFA, blocks any real progress towards sustainability. "The EU is seeking to position itself as the friend of the South. The EU's credibility derives from its energetic role in negotiating the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change and in facilitating negotiations on the Cartegena Protocol on the transboundary movement of living modified organisms (GMOS). However its dominant trade liberalisation agenda as shown in its leading role in the WTO negotiations in Doha in 2001, as well as its consumption of third-country resources such as forests and fish, makes its pro-development rhetoric unconvincing", say the Greens. Speaking to the press, co-president Daniel Cohn-Bendit stressed how important it was 25 deputies would be taking part. "We hope we shall be able to make everyone understand that the prospect of sustainable development must be strengthened. The hard line taken by the United States consists in blocking all international conventions that would force the US to change its policy. We must strengthen what was begun in Rio and what was continued in Kyoto so that sustainable development becomes the backbone of the policies", he said. Rémi Parmentier, President of Greenpeace international, for his part, expressed the hope that European ministers who are to be in Bali "will put an end to the inertia of the officials". "I appeal to all government representatives who take an interest in environmental affairs to come to Bali. The United States has already said it does not want any commitment. It is only ready to accept voluntary partnership agreements with the private sector. In Johannesburg, it will be too late for regrets". Vandana Shiva of the IFG Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Echology, has become the advocate for the fight against "bargaining" with natural resources. More pessimistic than the other speakers, she said: "I have the impression that Rio+10 will become Rio-10. The right to the protection of water, and biodiversity of the atmosphere is the main point for the people of the third world. It is a question of life and death for them". Describing the dumping of subsidised foodstuffs, the patentability of living resources and the privatisation of water as a "catastrophe for the poor countries", she declared: "in my part of the world, people are sick of pillaging. Their resources are not for sale". Speaking of the "water crisis which means that, by 2025, two thirds of the world's population will not have enough water", Maud Barlow, Director of the NGO Council of Canadians, involved in the "Blue Planet" project, fiercely attacked the European Commission's intention to move along these lines under the aegis of the WTO. Accusing, moreover, the attempts made by the WTO to force the UN's hand to take the context of Doha as a reference for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, she added: "Johannesburg must be a forum for the citizens, not a platform for the World Bank and the WHO".