S T A T E   O F   T H E   E N V I R O N M E N T

  This was the conclusion of Domingo Jimenez Beltran, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency (EEA), in his presentation of the EEA report, Europe's Environment: The Second Assessment, prepared for Aarhus.

  The report provides a comprehensive overview of Pan-European environmental progress (covering 44 countries) made since 1990 and was requested by ministers at the 1995 Sofia conference as a follow-up report to the EEA's first study on the state of Europe's environment, the Dobris Assessment. EEA information is intended to support strategic policymaking in the development of environmental policies and sectoral policies which take proper account of environmental imperatives.

  The new report emphasises that, while progress has been made in environmental policymaking, there has been no significant improvement in the state of the environment. Some successes have occurred: There have been decreases in pollutants, including a 60 percent reduction in lead emissions since 1980. The report adds that most successes in reducing emissions relate to substances subject to international conventions, such as ozone-depleting substances. However, "we have seldom been able to detect any significant improvement in the environment itself," said Beltran. "We still have high nutrient concentrations in rivers, lakes and seas, chemicals are widespread, soils continue to deteriorate, waste continues to increase, we still have regular episodes of summer smog and nature is still endangered."

  The report notes that emission reductions can be largely attributed to economic restructuring in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), which resulted in major drops in industrial production. "This implies that, even more than before, it is the countries of Western Europe that are causing the largest part of the emissions in Europe," said Beltran, adding that the West must ensure that economic recovery in CEE is environmentally sustainable. Noting huge potential in energy efficiency in both CEE and the NIS, Beltran advises that CEE establish sustainable development as its main goal, rather than just compliance with West European legislation.

  The EEA's David Stanners agreed that Western Europe is the biggest contributor to pollution in Europe, adding that Western environmentally damaging practices are now emerging in Central and Eastern Europe. "A special effort is needed to ensure that, once economic growth picks up again in Eastern Europe, it does not lead to the degradation of nature and deterioration of environmental quality in Europe as previously seen," said Stanners, emphasising the richness of nature and high quality habitat remaining in Central and Eastern Europe which are far less extensive in Western Europe.

  The warning was echoed by other conference speakers. UNECE Executive Secretary Yves Berthelot, in his opening address, said "the ECE is the region which has most polluted our planet, but also the region which has made the greatest efforts to protect the environment through institutional measures, technological progress and other steps."

THE CONCLUSIONS
KEY ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM	PROGRESS policies	PROGRESS state of environment
climate change
stratospheric ozone depletion
acidification
tropospheric ozone
chemicals
waste
biodiversity
inland waters
marine and coastal environment
soil degradation
urban environment
technological and natural hazards
LEGEND positive development with regard to development of policies or state of the environment some policy development, but insufficient to deal with the full problem (including insufficient geographical coverage). Little or no change in the state of environment. Can also indicate uncertain or varying developments in the various areas. little development of policies or unfavourable development of the state of the environment. Can also indicate continuing high pressure or poor state of the environment.

  In his opening speech, Danish Environment Minister Sven Auken said that "the lesson from the Second Assessment cannot be disregarded. The prosperity of Western Europe has had its heavy environmental costs." Both Auken and UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer warned delegates of the threats posed by environmental problems in causing civil unrest and tensions between states, particularly related to water issues.

  One reason for the report's negative conclusion is that natural processes are slow, resulting in time delays between pollutant reductions and environmental improvement. While ozone-depleting substance emissions have significantly fallen, for example, ozone layer recovery is not expected until around 2050. Another problem is the lack of proportion between the scale of effort and size of the problem targeted. While phosphorus emissions to surface waters have often decreased, for example, eutrophication continues partially because of the relative failure in controlling nitrogen emissions. And mismatches occur especially in high growth sectors, such as transport and agriculture, where environmental policies have little influence. "The transport and agriculture sectors are key causes of many of Europe's environmental problems and the environmental pressures caused by these sectors are in some cases growing fast," said Stanners.

  To remedy the situation, Beltran called for more socio-economic policies supported by environmentally horizontal policies, using indicators for evaluating progress on a regular basis and publishing annual state of the environment reports for strategic policy-making — an idea supported by EC Commissioner for Environment Ritt Bjerregaard and UK Environment Minister Michael Meacher. "Indicators must be a driver for government policy, so that the public can judge for themselves how well we are protecting our environment," said Meacher.

  A final suggestion was to complete an overview on topics not adequately assessed by the report, especially chemicals, radioactivity and assessments of natural areas.

  Information for the report was collected through the EEA's Reference Centre — a network of institutes and individuals in 18 countries in Western Europe and 13 in CEE. "We are already looking further eastward to build the necessary environmental monitoring and information system for the other EU, the Ecological Union," said Beltran, adding that the EEA is open to membership to countries outside the EU.

  Theresa Herzog, Chair of the Steering Committee of the European ECO Forum, thanked ministers for allowing for NGO participation in the report but added that the report should have been ready for viewing earlier. She noted that no "Aarhus Initiatives" should be developed following the report, as they had been during the last conference in Sofia.