8/6/2007
Green Week 2007: Past Lessons, Future Challenges

Learning from past successes and failures to ensure that current and future environmental challenges are addressed most effectively is the goal of this year's Green Week, the European Commission's annual conference and exhibition event dedicated to the environment.

Tying in with the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, Green Week 2007 will take place at the Charlemagne building in Brussels, from 12-15 June under the slogan Past lessons, future challenges.

Up to 4,000 participants are expected. Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Vice-President Margot Wallström will both speak at the opening session on 12 June and regional affairs Commissioner Danuta Hübner will speak at a session on regions and environmental sustainability.

Commissioner Dimas said: "Five decades of EU cooperation have achieved many significant improvements in Europe's environment and the health of its citizens. However, it is in the last two years that environment has moved to the top of the agenda in many European countries. The major threats we are now facing, climate change and loss of biodiversity, have to be tackled together. Actions have already been taken but more needs to be done both at political and individual levels."

Green Week, which brings together stakeholders from all areas and countries, to discuss openly the issues at stake, is an important forum for generating new ideas and enhancing cooperation.

Now in its seventh year, Green Week provides a unique opportunity for the exchange of experience and best practice between representatives from governments, business, international institutions, non-governmental organisations and the scientific and academic communities. It is the biggest annual international event focusing on EU environment policies. Participation is free.

Twenty-two conferences and numerous side events will bring together leading decision-makers and experts from Europe and around the world to discuss how best to meet a range of environmental challenges which also have major economic and social implications. These include climate change, loss of biodiversity, unsustainable production and consumption patterns and meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

A number of conference sessions, will be web-streamed live on the Green Week web site at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/greenweek/home.html.

In addition to an exhibition area with 75 stands inside the Charlemagne building, Green Week 2007 for the first time also features Green Week Expo, an exhibition of environmental technologies which began on 3 June in the Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels.  As in previous years, the Commission intends to make Green Week 2007 'climate-neutral' by taking measures to offset the carbon dioxide emissions generated by the event.

Other speakers will include: Klaus Töpfer, former German Environment Minister and former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director, European Environment Agency;  Roland Vaxelaire, President Carrefour (Belgium); Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General, World Conservation Union