Brussels, 22/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - In Sonderborg on Friday, ahead of the Environment Council on Saturday and Sunday (see above) Danish minister Hans Schmidt and Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström organised a debate with several NGOs: Greenpeace, WWF, EEB, Birdlife, the Regional Environment Centre for Central and Eastern Europe and the Polish and Slovenian institutes for sustainable development, which outlined their recommendations and expectations for the World Sustainable Development Summit in Johannesburg.
The NGOs repeated various aspirations (such as revising the current world trade system and good company governance), particularly their fear that the Jo'burg Summit may turn into a meaningless global agreement (referring to the United States' reluctance to adopt any binding framework). Lars Georg Jensen from the WWF said that while partnership agreements were a good thing, it was vital that the general framework be binding and meaningful. Some NGOs went as far as proposing that the EU join forces with the G77 to sign a good agreement rather than make a bad agreement with the US.
Wallström thanked the NGOs for having steadfastly defended the concept of sustainable development. Rémi Parmentier (Greenpeace) recognised that the US isolationist stance was not an ideal situation, but the EU had to stand firm to convince Bush, taking advantage of the first anniversary of the S-11 attacks (a few days after the Jo'burg Summit starts). He said that after the attacks, everyone agreed that terrorism flourished in the poverty and inequality caused by the destruction of natural resources, adding that this point had to be emphasised to convince the United States.