Commissioner Bjerregaard meets Environment Ministers from Central and Eastern European countries
Mrs. Ritt Bjerregaard, Commissioner responsible for the environment, and Mr. Johny Lahure, Environment Minister of Luxembourg and current President of the Environment Council, met with the Environment Ministers of the Central and Eastern European countries in Brussels on 8 September 1997. The informal meeting was the first since the Commission published Agenda 2000, its strategy for the enlargement of the EU. It allowed the Ministers to discuss major aspects of the pre-accession strategy in the environmental field - the measures necessary to bring environmental standards in the CEECs up to the level of the EU. Commissioner Bjerregaard presented a new Commission guidebook, which aims to assist the CEECs in the transposition and implementation of EU environmental legislation. She also gave participants a brief progress report on the current state of approximation of environmental legislation in the CEECs. The afternoon's discussions focused specifically on the issues of CO2 emissions and climate change, with a view to preparing a coordinated position for the Kyoto Climate Change Summit, which will take place in December 1997.