About The Conference

Enlargement of the European Union to 25 member states presents new challenges and opportunities for revitalising and refocusing sustainable development policy. At EU level, there is a commitment to review the European Union Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS) in 2004; at the same time, many member states have reviewed, or are reviewing, their national strategies in the light of the outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development and developments at EU level. Accordingly, now is the time to forge stronger and closer connections between national and EU policies to make sustainable development more of a reality.

Against this background, and as part of Ireland’s EU Presidency, the Irish Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Comhar, Ireland’s National Sustainable Development Partnership, will host a conference on sustainable development in April 2004. The theme of the conference will address the challenges and opportunities for sustainable development in an enlarged EU. It will build on the outcome of the Vienna ¹ workshop and expert meeting in The Hague ² with a view to contributing practical perspectives for the purposes of the SDS review, and further explore ways of linking national strategies and strengthening coherence with a reviewed SDS.

1 Sustainable Development in an Enlarged Union - Linking National Strategies and Strengthening European Coherence. Vienna, 28th and 29th April, 2003
2 National Strategies for Sustainable Development: Facts, Faces and Future Challenges. The Hague, 2002.