The second "Environment for Europe" Ministerial Conference was held in 1993 in Lucerne, Switzerland. It brought together Ministers and senior officials from 45 European countries, Canada, Israel, Japan, the United States, the European Commissioner for Environment, as well as various international organizations and NGOs.
The Declaration adopted by the Ministers in Lucerne set out the political dimension of what has since been called the EfE process. The Lucerne Conference endorsed the Environmental Action Programme for Central and Eastern Europe* (EAP) and set up a Task Force (EAP TF) and the Project Preparation Committee (PPC) to implement this broad strategy.
Apart from the overall strategic direction contained in the EAP, various other themes which characterized work under the EfE process after the Lucerne Conference were called for in the Ministerial Declaration, including: biodiversity conservation (lead: Council of Europe in cooperation with IUCN); European state of the environment reporting (lead EEA); the Environmental Programme for Europe (lead: UNECE); Environmental Performance Reviews (lead: OECD in cooperation with UNECE - later UNECE took the lead in implementing the program); public participation; international legal instruments (lead: UNECE); etc.
In fact, the Lucerne Ministerial Declaration covered a very wide and broad set of environmental themes and issues. As for the broader political dimension of the EfE process, Ministers declared (para 3) with direct reference to UNCED, that cooperation should aim at convergence towards environmental quality and policies in Europe and that cooperation should aim at peace, stability and sustainable development in Europe. Paragraph 9.2 of the Ministerial Declaration also introduced the multi-stakeholder approach which characterized work under the EfE process in the years to come and which was inspired by Agenda 21:
"This partnership should include cooperation between different levels of government, local authorities, local financial institutions, private industry, and the indispensable participation of the informal sectors. We will therefore encourage and promote active participation by the informal sectors, including the major groups mentioned in Agenda 21, through, to begin with, regular dissemination and discussion of information relating to the implementation process."
* The abridged version of the EAP can be viewed at the World Bank's website: Just enter "Environmental Action Programme for Central and Eastern Europe" into the search field and select the EAP from the list. |