Press release 02 June 2008
Ministry of the Environment

Upcoming EU presidencies: France, Sweden and the Czech Republic confirmed that they will work closely with the aim to finalize t

Mr Jean-Louis BORLOO, Minister for Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning of France, welcomed today in Paris Mr Martin BURSIK, Minister of Environment of the Czech Republic, and Mr Andreas CARLGREN, Minister of Environment of Sweden, together with the European Commission and the General Secretariat of the Council, to further co-operation in the environmental field during the 18 month period of their EU presidencies from 1 July 2008 till 31 December 2009.

During this meeting, the three ministers primarily discussed the following issues for the next 18 months' work in the Council :
- climate change and energy (the climate and energy legislative package),
- sustainable development (particularly sustainable consumption and production),
- and biodiversity (regarding the 2010 objective to halt the loss of biodiversity),
along with pollution matters, waste management, chemicals and marine issues in the Mediterranean and the Baltic Seas.

The three ministers agreed to further the EU internal negotiations on the climate and energy legislative package with the aim to finalize the negotiations before next year's elections to the European Parliament and in the perspective of facilitating the concluding international negotiations on the post-Kyoto protocol in Copenhagen in December 2009.

They emphasize that a low carbon economy will not only merit climate change but also create jobs and growth and place Europe in the frontline.

Considering that deforestation is at the meantime one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gazes emission and the cause of important damages in terms of biodiversity, the three ministers, together with the European Commission, also called for a study on the economical impacts of deforestation. The next three presidencies also said that they will associate more widely Africa to the negociation on a post-2012 agreement on climate change.