Reviews by Otilia Petre A European Union Strategy for Sustainable Development Published by the European Commission, 2002, 119 pages. The European Commission's strategy for sustainable development, which took shape in 2001, marked a major step forward in European efforts to contain human damage to the environment. In this publication on its strategy, the EC offers four flagship documents, in which Europeans are presented with key problems related to the social and global impact of development - and proposes actions needed to solve them in a sustainable way. The EC strategy is an attempt to address what are considered the main areas in need of improvement: climate change and clean energy, publichealth, management of natural resources, poverty and social exclusion, aging and mobility, land use and territorial development. The report offers an overview of the latest efforts in developing a set of indicators and other instruments for measuring progress towards sustainable development. Not surprisingly, the accent falls on harmonising development and material progress with advances in the field of a European Union-promoted "humanitarian" social policy. The methods proposed involve improving communication and mobilising citizens and businesses and, in general, getting a clear message across: that achieving sustainable development will have a price,and everyone should be ready to help pay it.     Building Institutions for Markets: World Development Report 2002 Published for the World Bank by Oxford University Press, 2002, 249 pages Markets that promote growth and reduce poverty require institutions that can support them. As this report notes, these market-supporting institutions can range from unwritten customs and traditions to complex legal codes, which regulate international commerce on the cutting edge of technology. The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the key factors influencing sustainable development and is divided into three main sections:firms, governments and society. A number of case studies present examples of institution building,ranging from foreign ownership of banks in Hungary and media ownership in Ukraine to improving access to information in Thailand and omputerisation and land registration in an Indian province. The final chapter contains a complex series of "world development indicators", from 173 countries, including GDP figures, life expectancy and carbon dioxide emissions. The report offers an important geographic dimension, illustrated by scores of tables and statistical analyses. But it also has a historical dimension: It shows that institutional development is not simply something that has grown "organically" - but rather that it is part of a historical and political process that can be initiated at any point in time. Books reviewed in this column can be found in the REC online library catalogue at: http://www.rec.org/REC/Programs/InformationProgram/Library.html

A European Union Strategy for Sustainable Development 119 pages