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Sustainable Development Issues
Policy Issues
The European Community has adopted the sustainable development
concept as detailed in the Brundtland Report. The Brundtland
definition has been incorporated in the EU Strategy for sustainable
development, adopted at the Gothenburg Council in 2001. This
strategy requires that all policies should be judged by how
they contribute to sustainable development. The 5th and 6th
Community Policy and Action Programmes make direct reference
to the concept of sustainable development. As far as the extractive
industries are concerned the most relevant document is the
Communication on "Promoting sustainable development in
the EU non-energy extractive industry" (COM (2000) 265).
Among its follow-up actions, the Communication envisaged to
issue an action plan which was the Communication from the
Commission on "Safe operation of mining activities: A
follow-up of recent mining accidents", COM (2000) 664.
This Communication describes the Aznalcollár and the
Baia Mare accidents and gives an overview of the Community
environmental legislation with special emphasis on tailings
pond safety. The identified three key follow-up actions are
the amendment of the Seveso II Directive, an initiative on
the management of mining waste, and a Best Available Technology
(BAT) reference document under the Directive on the Management
of waste from the extractive industry.
Most Member States have taken measures to implement the principles
of sustainable development. These range from legislation implementing
the concepts of sustainable development to the formulation
and publication of specific policies aimed to sustain the
minerals supply and supply of flow of benefits from mining.
In most Member States the emphasis has been on environmental
protection, promoting reduced use of minerals, and recycling
of materials.
Sustainable Development Indicators
Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Natural
Resources
Introduction to the Strategy
The EU Communication "Towards a Thematic Strategy on the
Sustainable Use of Natural Resources" was adopted in October
2003 and states as an objective the reduction of environmental
impact of resource use. The goal is to ensure that resource
use does not lead to environmental degradation and at this stage
seems to concentrate on the sustainability of renewable resources
where their overexploitation could possibly damage bio-diversity.
The three main elements of CEC's resource use strategy are
1) to gather more information on the impacts of resource use
throughout its life cycle,
2) to analyse policy options based on information about the
impact of resource use on the environment,
3) to propose policies.
The strategy explicitly mentions that it wishes to look at resource
pricing and progress towards eliminating so-called "environmentally
negative subsidies" (considered to be products such as
coal).
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