Transatlantic leadership needed to achieve sustainable development
Environmental protection and sustainable development now have the same degree of priority and importance on the global agenda as security policy and peace keeping, as the management of the world financial system or the fight against international organised crime, European Commissioner for Environment Ritt Bjerregaard told the US-German State Leadership Conference in Washington on 13 March 1999. She underlined the need for political will. "It is only by providing leadership and commitment together across the Atlantic that we may move the environmental agenda forward. The European Union (EU) and the United States (US) each has a very special responsibility. We have the most aggressive production systems depleting the resources of the planet at high speed - but also the most environmentally conscious citizens, the highest scientific expertise and economic wealth. So there is no excuse for not moving aggressively forward." Commissioner Bjerregaard expressed surprise and disappointment at the failure of negotiations of a Protocol on Biosafety to the UN Convention on Biodiversity. "This was not the best example of international leadership," she said. "It is a matter of great regret to Europe when the US fails to enter into commitments under the UN system, which is the prime forum for providing global solutions to global environmental problems. At the Rio Conference in 1992, governments of the world agreed to develop their economies in a sustainable manner, to integrate environmental concerns into all policy areas to provide for the rational and equitable use of natural resources and to protect the global environment for the benefit of future generations, she said. "In Europe, we wrote these principles into our Constitution! In the Maastricht Treaty and in the Amsterdam Treaty, the EU effectively signed up to an obligation to integrate the Rio requirements into all European policies," she said. "The Transatlantic Economic Partnership could be particularly important in bringing together the US and EU position in the forthcoming WTO millennium round. Trade and environment will play a determining role in those negotiations. If we cannot narrow down our differences, we may head for a showdown in Geneva. "Health, safety, clean air, nature and water are absolute requirements of our citizens. We need to reconcile these desires with our economic behaviour, with our trade system and with the way with which we deal with these issues in international negotiations. This requires much more than meeting rooms, speeches and dialogue. It requires vision and leadership," Commissioner Bjerregaard concluded.