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On 21-23 May, EU environment ministers will meet their Eastern counterparts in Kiev (Ukraine) to discuss further cooperation on environment. The water issue will be given a high priority.
European Environment Ministers of the countries members of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE) are expected to meet in Kiev on 21-23 May 2003. The Kiev Conference will be the fifth in a series of regional conferences where Environment Ministers and policy makers discuss ways of strengthening cooperation to protect and improve the environment.
In one year, several New Independant States (NIS) of the former Soviet Union will become the new EU neighbours. Pollution management and transboundary polulution management in particular is therefore of the utmost importance for the EU. In its conclusions for the conference, the Environment Council stressed that the Kiev meeting is the opportunity to agree on the priorities and objectives of environmental co-operation in the wider European region over the next few years.
During the conference, the environment ministers are expected to sign three new protocols:
Environment Ministers are also expected to hold policy debates on:
The European ECO–Forum is concerned about the lack of progress in the pan–European region on environmentally sound sustainable development. Consumption and production patterns continue to exert pressure on the environment and accelerate the depletion of natural resources both in the region and globally. Biodiversity is threatened by intensive agricultural practices and the introduction of genetically modified crops, the fragmentation of landscape due to new transport infrastructure and to urban sprawl.