Green light for Hague trip after Wallström U-turn

Date: 04/04/02

By Laurence Frost

EU ENVIRONMENT chief Margot Wallström has bowed to pressure from the Belgian government and environmental groups by agreeing 'to do her utmost' to attend talks on the UN's Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) which start on Sunday (7 April).

The Swedish commissioner agreed to go to the meeting in The Hague after attracting widespread criticism for indicating that her schedule was already fully booked.

However, in a telephone conversation with Belgian environment minister Magda Aelvoet last week, Wallström said she would make every effort to be present at the ministerial session wrapping up the talks on 17-18 April.

'She told me that she will do her utmost to be in The Hague for at least one or two days,' Aelvoet told European Voice.

'She recognised that it was bad planning by her services.'

The turnaround came after Aelvoet wrote to Wallström to register her dismay at her plans not to attend the sixth 'Conference of the Parties' to the 1993 CBD.

At the conference, 183 member countries will try to flesh out the broad framework convention with binding agreements to protect plant and animal species and their genetic code from damaging human exploitation.

The convention is one of the key international green initiatives to be reviewed at August's World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa - ten years after the Rio Earth Summit that launched the process.

EU member states are to be represented by the Commission at the conference, while also sending their own delegations.

Aelvoet said that if the environment commissioner did not attend, 'it would be unfortunate and it would send the wrong message to Johannesburg'.

Green groups also reacted with astonishment to Wallström's original decision not to go to the Hague talks. 'I found it quite amazing,' said Filipa Pimentel of Greenpeace. 'This is an internationally-binding convention we're talking about - and it's not exactly on the other side of the world.'

Wallström's spokeswoman pointed out that the biodiversity conference ministerial clashes with the Commission's Green Week (15-19 April), during which the commissioner is due to receive visiting ministers and delegations.

'There are so many of these important international meetings going on,' said Pia Ahrenkilde.

'There's no way the commissioner can attend all of them - it's perfectly normal to delegate attendance to a high-level official.'

Margot Wallström, European Commissioner for the Environment, will attend at least two days of the talks on the UN's Convention on Biodiversity which begin on 7 April 2002 and finish on 18 April 2002 after coming under pressure from the Belgian government and environmental groups to attend.