General Consultative Forum on the Environment - Statements and policy recommendations
The European Commission's General Consultative Forum on the Environment was set up in 1993, within the framework of the Community's fifth action programme for the environment, to advise the Commission on environment issues and sustainable development. The European Commission has recently published the texts of the statements and policy recommendations adopted by the Forum over its three years of existence from 1993 to 1996. A wide variety of statements on key issues in the environment policy debate were adopted by the Forum. These are included in a single volume and include: the Forum's own "12 principles of sustainable development"; a review of the Community's fifth action programme; and statements on a range of issues such as environmental liability, transport, agriculture and energy. A second volume contains the policy recommendations approved by the Forum. This volume consists of two texts. The first is the summary and recommendations agreed by the Forum in November 1996 on how the Commission should approach its policy-making in the light of the environment and sustainable development in the run-up to the year 2000. The second text, prepared by the International Institute for Environment and Development and by "SustainAbility" (UK), describes a series of scenarios for a sustainable Europe in the year 2020. This second document has not been agreed as such by the Forum, but served as a brainstorming tool, outlining the key issues and setting the scene for the Forum's discussions. The two volumes will be distributed widely and it is hoped that they will encourage a wide-ranging debate on, and further implementation of, sustainable development policies across Europe.