More than 100 high-level officials from environmental ministries in CEE received advanced instruction on sustainability during an academic programme launched this spring by the REC and partners in Italy and Hungary.

	Photo: CSABA SZABO

Dubbed the “Course for Sustainability,” the programme enlightens public officials in CEE working directly in the field of sustainable development. The course aims to enhance their ability to create policies that promote sustainable environments, societies and economies.

Two of the sessions of the first course have already been carried out, one in April focusing on the global environmental situation and strategies for sustainable development and one in May dedicated to developing policies, laws and institutions for sustainable development.

Sixty officials participated in each session, all from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovenia.

Integrating the environment into today’s economic and social agenda is the biggest challenge ahead for policy makers in this region, said Katalin Szili, Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament. Szili, pictured above, announced the inauguration of the course to the media with Professor Maria Lodovica Gullino of the Turin University and REC Executive Director Marta Szigeti Bonifert.

Szili noted that the Hungarian government is implementing its second environmental programme, which will expire in 2008.“But it is my personal dream to see a longer term sustainability strategy for my country, and talks among parties are underway,” Szili said in an interview with Green Horizon.

The Italian Trust Fund allocated EUR 850,000 for the project, implemented in cooperation with the Venice International University, Agroinnova (Turin University) and the Central European University. It is hoped that the course will establish a high-level network of CEE government officials that will be able to work with course organisers toward more rational policy making.