Press Release: Candidate countries sign El Teide Declaration and signal their determination to halt bio-diversity loss

During an Informal Ministerial Meeting in Brussels on 12 July 2002, environment ministers from all 13 EU candidate countries (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey) signed the El Teide Declaration in the presence of Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström, thereby committing themselves to tackling the problem of bio-diversity loss in their respective countries.