Luxembourg, 25th June 2002

Dear Members of the European Union Environment Council,

Re: Friends of the Earth Europe’s proposals to the European Union Environment Council for the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE), as part of Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) – the world’s largest grassroots environmental network - has closely followed and participated in the preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). We are writing to you today, following the endorsement in Seville of the EU's overall position for the Summit, to express our serious concerns about the WSSD, and to offer our recommendations.

FoEE believes that the EU’s responsibility for the Summit is two-fold:

 - Firstly, the EU must take a lead role in the international process and push immediately for a drastic improvement in the negotiations, arguing for vision, meaningful action plans with clear targets, timetables and dedicated funds. So far all these critical elements are missing. FoEE welcomes the EU's renewed commitment to the Rio Principles and Agenda 21 but asks the Union to re-enforce its support for two of these key principles of sustainable development, the precautionary principle and common but differentiated responsibilities.

  - Secondly, urgent action is needed in key sectors of EU activity – such as trade, corporate accountability, agriculture, fisheries, transport and energy - and much more needs to be done to develop a coherent approach to sustainability.

FoEE appeals to the Ministers of the EU Environment Council to ensure the EU supports the following points in order to provide the Johannesburg Summit with an ambitious agenda which truly helps deliver sustainability:

FoEE is particularly concerned that the Johannesburg Summit could make sustainable development subservient to the WTO’s trade agenda. Many passages in the relevant Council Conclusions, as much as in the Chairman’s paper so far, refer to the so-called ‘Doha Development Agenda’, suggesting that the WTO-driven free trade regime will deliver sustainable development. The evidence since Rio suggests that the opposite is true. The spread of corporate globalisation has led to worsening environmental conditions worldwide and a further widening of the gap between rich and poor, both between North and South and within countries. Increasingly, countries are played against each other to provide investors with low environmental or social standards and the lowest taxes.

Ministers must ensure that the Political Declaration to be adopted in Johannesburg clearly establishes the primacy of sustainable development over the global trade regime and that references to the outcomes of the Doha Ministerial Conference are deleted. A commitment to an assessment of the consequences of previous trade liberalisation rounds, before any other negotiation shall take place at all, must also be delivered by Heads of States and Governments at Johannesburg. Otherwise civil society will have to conclude that governments want to sacrifice sustainable development to the neo-liberal trade agenda, to which opposition is increasing globally.

Due to the rapid development of WTO rules with strong enforcement measures, the implementation of some MEA trade provisions have suffered from a ‘chilling’ effect, with some members arguing that some MEA trade provisions are not compatible with WTO rules.

At stake is the very essence of global governance, where the MEAs represent a rare and strategically important space in today’s international governance architecture to protect people and the environment. As demanded by the European Parliament (2), Ministers must ensure that the Political Declaration affirms in a clear statement the authority and autonomy of MEAs, and clarifies that the objectives, principles, and obligations of MEAs that are consistent with and supportive of the goals of sustainable development, shall not be adversely affected by the rules of the multilateral trading system.

• Call for a legally binding Convention on corporate accountability

Concerning corporate accountability and liability issues, the EU has so far limited itself to supporting merely voluntary initiatives such as the OECD guidelines for foreign investors, Global Reporting Initiatives, OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises and the UN Global Compact.

FoEE believes that whether or not such voluntary initiatives play a role, they cannot credibly be presented as an alternative to internationally agreed binding rules of accountability.

A coherent framework is needed which ensures that business meets the minimum environmental and social standards necessary for sustainable development and which secures rights for citizens and communities to help provide them with sustainable livelihoods.

We therefore urge Ministers to demand that a process of negotiation is set in place at Johannesburg for a binding global corporate accountability (including liability) instrument. This essential platform for sustainability is one of FOE’s key demands and is fully supported by many other civil society groups, such as Oxfam, WWF and Greenpeace. Insufficient corporate control is one of the key reasons why unsustainable development has continued in the last decade.

• Agree a strong Political Declaration and Programme of Action - not weak, un-enforceable 
  Voluntary Partnership Initiatives

FoEE remains deeply concerned about the partnership (Type 2) agreements that are to be a significant ´outcome´ of the Summit. The negotiation tactics by the EU at Bali confirmed that it sees Type 2 agreements as an alternative to intergovernmental commitments. In this context, Type 2 outcomes will result in the "privatisation of sustainable development", as UNEP Executive Director Klaus Töpfer has warned. FoEE will judge the outcome of the Johannesburg Summit solely on the merits of the Type 1 results. We are opposed to any process that could result in a further increase of corporate influence over the United Nations.

• Acknowledge the ecological debt in the action programme

FoEE is appalled that governments fail to acknowledge the ecological debt that the global North owes the global South in the action program. While we support an action programme on sustainable consumption and production, the Global North must urgently take further steps to address this constantly growing debt. As there is no evidence that governments are willing to do so in the action programme, we call for this urgent issue to be addressed in the political declaration. The financial debt of the South needs to be abolished as a necessary precondition for sustainable development.

Together with our colleagues from Greenpeace and WWF, we urge the EU to continue its efforts to achieve measurable results in the areas of water and energy. We especially support initiatives to launch an action programme to enable access to clean, affordable and reliable energy services for the poorest part of the world’s population and to establish a global target of at least 10% primary energy supply from new renewable sources by 2010.

We also urge governments to take serious steps to reach the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation. It is the duty of the industrialised countries (recognising the ecological debt) to provide the necessary funds for these programmes.

• Ensure the continuity and strengthening of EU processes for sustainability beyond the 
  WSSD, and adapt key EU policies to objectives of sustainable development

While the adoption of the Gothenburg EU Sustainable Development Strategy and the Cardiff Process of Environmental Integration can be seen as positive achievements, efforts towards sustainability have recently undergone a period of ‘recession’. In particular the Commission Communication on the External Dimension of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy and the Synthesis Report for the latest Spring Council in Barcelona were disappointments for civil society. FoEE urgently asks for the Ministers’ commitment to the continuation and strengthening of the different EU processes dedicated to sustainable development. Within the Sustainable Development Strategy we urge the environmental ministers to give special attention to a reduction in the total amount of resources used in the EU which we see as a key indicator for sustainable development. An indicator for measuring progress (such as Total Material Requirement) should be developed for the next Synthesis Report.

Moreover FoEE urges the Ministers to push for the reform of EU-policies to make Europe sustainable. Among these urgently needed steps are: a European energy tax (Monti proposal); the phasing out of subsidies that are harmful to the environment; reform of the EU CAP to make EU subsidies work for environmentally friendly agriculture, providing people with safe and healthy food; reform of the Common Fisheries Policy; the reform of the European transport policy with the aim of de-coupling transport growth from economic growth and developing a policy aimed at the reduction in transport in the European Union in general.

Please note that all of our concerns and demands are equally affirmed by the European Parliament reports on WSSD, which have been adopted on 16^th May 2002 with an overwhelming majority (2), and the GLOBE Europe (Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment) Resolution from 14^th April 2002 (3).

FoEE welcomes the EU’s identification of and commitment to the six main challenges as adopted by 4^th March 2002 Council on the preparation of WSSD. However we still want to stress the importance of all the points outlined above which we hope will be supported by the EU in the Political Declaration and Programme of Action for Johannesburg.

Please find FoEI’s eight-page position paper on corporate accountability, attached to this letter, which explains this FoE priority demand in more detail. This demand is being brought to the public’s attention with a series of actions all over Europe, involving FoE’s corporate giant (see today’s action in front of the Environmental Council). We are looking forward to your active support for our suggestions.

Yours sincerely,

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