Contact: Dr. Peter Pavlovic
Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches
174, rue Joseph II, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 2 234 68 33, Fax: +32 2 231 14 13
E-mail: ppt@cec-kek.be

Last revised: January 2002
Next working group meeting: 8-9 November 2002.

The working group's activities follow up work which was previously done by the European Ecumenical Commission for Church and Society (EECCS) in this field. Two reports were produced by EECCS in the past:

• "The dominant economic model and sustainable development: are they compatible?"

• "Sustainable development and the market economy: integrating environment in EU-economic and employment policies".     (Part II, click here)

Activities related to the theme of sustainable development are the current priority for the group. At the January meeting, particular emphasis was given to the EU initiative to formulate a Strategy for Sustainable Development (SDS). The group is concentrating on reacting to the EU policies in the area of sustainable development, and preparing a contribution from the churches to the World Summit for Sustainable Development, which will be held in August and September 2002 in South Africa.

The working group works in three sub-groups:

1. Climate change, transport and energy

This sub-group is studying the ethical dimension of these issues, including the relation between theory and reality, and will collect examples of good practices in their local and transnational perspectives

2. Social issues

This sub-group is concentrating on two topics:

• the quality of work
• social security for excluded persons

which will be related to the social part of the EU strategy for sustainable development.

3. Economies in transition

This sub-group decided to continue focussing on the question of how the issue of sustainable development is handled in transition economies, particularly in the area of agriculture and rural development. The work will be developed along two lines:

1. the specific problems of transforming economies in relation to the EU SDS strategy;
2. elaboration of the churches' contribution to the European debate on agriculture, taking into consideration the efforts of the European Commission to revise the Common Agricultural Policy, as well as the situation after recent experiences with animal diseases, and clarifying the main problems of agriculture from our perspective, as well as listing a number of available good practices.

A coherent text will be prepared as the response of the churches to the EU Strategy for Sustainable Development, on the basis of inputs from the sub-groups in the coming weeks.





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