Introduction (Russian)
The 1991 Dobris Ministerial Conference "Environment
for Europe" called for a comprehensive assessment
of Europe's environment and envisaged the development
of an Environmental Programme for Europe. At the
1993 Lucerne Conference, Ministers endorsed "Elements
for a Long-Term Environmental Programme for Europe"
elaborated under the UN/ECE framework and decided
on the further development of this programme on
the basis of a comprehensive assessment of Europe's
environment. "Europe's Environment: The Dobris
Assessment", prepared by the European Environment
Agency for the 1995 Sofia Conference, provided a
foundation for the Environmental Programme for Europe.
The Third Ministerial Conference "Environment
for Europe" (1995, Sofia) endorsed the Programme
prepared within the UN/ECE. The Programme is the
first attempt to set long-term environmental priorities
at the pan-European level and to make Agenda 21
more operational in the European context, particularly
its provision relating to the integration of environmental
policy with other policies. It serves as a framework
for the better coordination of national and international
efforts to improve environmental conditions throughout
Europe and to promote convergence of environmental
quality and policies. It covers a broad range of
issues and contains some 100 recommendations; it
also contains provisions allowing it to be updated,
further developed and expanded in the light of the
experience gained with its implementation.
The Programme (English,
Русский,
Français) was accompanied by a
background document (English, Русский, Français).
The Sofia Conference invited the ECE Committee
on Environmental Policy to screen the Programme
in order to make proposals for concrete priority
actions. The Ministers invited ECE, furthermore,
to assess its implementation and report on progress
at the fourth Conference, which took place in Aarhus,
Denmark in 1998. The Ministers at Aarhus considered
the progress
made in the Programme implementation and invited
the ECE Committee on Environmental Policy to continue
to screen the programme, taking into account the
report " Europe's
Environment: The Second Assessment", in
order to implement priority actions on a pan-European
level within the long-term programme of work and
to report on progress of this work at the next Ministerial
Conference (Kiev, 2002).