Press-announcement
Speakers:
Olga Ponizova, Coordinator, EAP Issue Group, European ECO-Forum
Gennady Marushevsky, National Organising Committee of Ukrainian NGOs
Mara Silina, European Environmental Bureau, Belgium
Karine Danielyan, Association "For Sustainable Human Development", Armenia
Oleg Pecheniuk, NGO "Independent Environmental Expertise", Kyrgyzstan
The 4th "Environment for Europe" conference in Aarhus acknowledged that the urgency of environmental problems in the New Independent States required additional international assistance to this region. However, in recent years, no real changes occurred. On 16 April 2002 in The Hague, the Environment Ministers of 12 sovereign states û Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan û agreed on the development of an Environmental Strategy for the region which would allow speeding up environmental reforms in these countries and strengthening their position in European and international cooperation.
"The majority of NGOs have supported the idea to draft an Environmental Strategy for Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA). Certainly, documents are not always initially doomed to success. The issues of sustainable development remain urgent and important. However, there is a chance to promote strengthening the environmental pillar of sustainable development by means of EECCA Environmental Strategy, and this chance shall not be missed," Olga Ponizova says.
The European ECO-Forum became an official participant of the East-West Environmental Partnership launched at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The EECCA Environmental Strategy turned to be a major component of the partnership. At the same time, ECO-Forum acknowledged the need to take into account the diversity of NGO opinions concerning the idea of the Strategy.
At the same time, the majority of Ukrainian environmental NGOs do not support the idea of the development of EECCA Environmental Strategy. "The proposed territorial framework of the Strategy is not geographically justified. The proposed political framework of the Strategy contradicts Ukrainian external policy line towards European integration. Artificial polarization of Ukrainian environmental policy to the East cannot contribute to the comprehensive solutions for transboundary environmental problems" Gennady Marushevsky says.
For more information: European ECO-Forum Information Center