Getting the Goods: 2005

European multi-stakeholder meeting:
SPAC patterns

Emmanuel Prinet,
Association 4D, France

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The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in partnership with the European Commission, organized two multistakeholder workshops on November 25 - 26 2004 in Ostende, Belgium, around sustainable production and consumption patterns in Europe;   the author, Emmanuel Prinet represented Association 4D at the meeting.  

This meeting was the regional component of the 10-year framework of programmes to reduce unsustainable production and consumption patterns, as evoked in the Implementation Plan of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002, Johannesburg).   An international meeting of experts at Marrakech in June 2003 already defined a certain number of priorities for the action on a world level.   Since, a certain number of regional initiatives have been commenced, in particular in Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific and Africa.   A second international conference will take place in Costa Rica in September 2005.   The Ostend conference brought together a certain number of actors on the European level, including government, intergovernmental institutions, NGOs, private sector, associations of consumer protection, and trade unions.   The objectives were:  

•  to contribute to the implementation of the sustainable production and consumption commitments entered into at Johannesburg;  

•  to recognize the significant roles that various actors play, and to encourage their engagement in sustainable production and consumption;  

•  to share information on the activities in progress towards sustainable production & consumption;   to identify the priority questions and the inconsistencies in the policies;   and to find the means of implementation of the policies and the activities.  

A certain number of documents concerning the Ostende conference are available on 4D website (http://www.association4d.org/article.php3?id_article=74):   including the agenda of the meeting, the preparatory document of the meeting (known as "Background Paper"), the NGO position for the conference, and the final report   of the meeting which includes the summary of the discussions by the Co-organizers.   There is also a text that collates instances of good practices and initiatives on the production and consumption patterns in Europe, prepared by the European Commission:   http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/environment/wssd/
documents/scp_eu.pdf