Getting the Goods: 2005

Introduction to the Ostend statement

Sylvia Lorek,
Sustainable Europe Research Institute, Germany

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The Ostend NGO Statement was a joint effort of the Northern Alliance for Sustainability (ANPED), the European Environment Bureau (EEB) and Eco Forum. The broad agreement on common positions towards sustainable consumption and production patterns was and is a success in itself. Intensive e-mail exchanges and several phone calls were necessary to get it to this stage. But as the statement is based on several existing position papers from the different organisations and networks the final approval was mostly a question of getting the responsible bodies to make decisions in time than a question of content. It is this broad platform that gives the paper strength to influence policy processes also beyond Ostend. This follow up is highly required as the Ostend meeting was not really a success, even though NGOs worked hard. Beside presenting the paper (that was included in every conference map) NGOs made sure that they were present in every working group, arranged a meeting with the co-chair and made some points in the final plenary. But all the efforts were not seen as having had any real effects when we left the meeting.

Looking back, three month later, the picture is even worse. The Regional Stakeholder meeting in Ostend might be referred to in Costa Rica in September, but within Europe it gets nearly no attention at all. When the European Consumer Day was celebrated with 200 participants from the Economic and Social Committee nobody mentioned Ostend; not the Commissioner of Health and Consumer Protection and not even the representative from the Direction General Environment who was one of the main organisers of Ostend. Is there any more to say about the non-position of Ostend and the Marrakech Process for Europe?

So further influencing the processes is not a can but a must. In the follow up of Ostend ANPED sent out a letter to some of the relevant commissioners and other high level person within the EU asking for their contribution for the follow up. The answers are still outstanding.

The statement is relevant beyond Europe. Besides all the regional specific aspects, the statement also contains some general positions that can be applied in other regions or in a global context. Especially the five key elements might be worth to take forward. ANPED developed some policy papers on those elements open for discussion within its network. But the key elements as well as the policy papers may also serve as a basis for in-depth discussion and position making e.g. within the NGOs, NGO networks, NGO meetings elsewhere, e.g. during the CSD etc