Environmental signals 2002 Benchmarking the millennium : European Environment Agency regular indicator report

Abstract

The European Commission’s Communication to the March 2002 Barcelona EU summit, The Lisbon strategy —making change happen, is an important milestone on the way to ensuring sustainable development in Europe. Reliable and up-to-date information on progress made towards sustainable development, and the underlying factors that influence the way society develops, is obviously of fundamental importance if the sustainable development strategy agreed by the European Council last year is to deliver real results. To support the environmental dimension of the strategy, as well as the sixth environmental action programme (6EAP) and the ‘Cardiff process’ of sectoral environmental integration, the European Environment Agency, as the key information provider on environmental issues at the European level, has been developing regular indicator-based reports for several years. The Agency’s showcase products in this field are Environmental signals and the annual TERM report, which tracks progress in integrating environmental considerations into the transport sector. Starting with the 2003 editions, these reports will also cover in a consistent way the new EEA member countries in central and eastern Europe and the Mediterranean basin. Later this year the Agency will publish indicator-based environmental reports following a similar approach on energy and tourism. It is also beginning work, together with the Commission services, on an indicator-based environmental report on agriculture. Eurostat is an important data provider for all these reports.