Hans Bruyninckx, EEA Executive Director presenting SOER 2015 at the launch conference

The launch conference, presenting the SOER 2015 outcomes was held on the 4^th of March 2015, following the launch in the EC. The presentations were given inter alia by Hans Bruyninckx, Karmenu Vella, Kaspars Gerhards (Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development in Latvia) as well as the representatives of EP, BussinessEurope, Health and Environment Alliance, Suez Environment. The panel discussions focused on future prospects and actions to be implemented in the environment policy and production and consumption systems. A video from the conference is available here.

 
SOER 2015 presentation in the European Parliament

On the 5^th of March 2015 the workshop on SOER 2015 in the context of linking current knowledge to the 7^th EAP priority objectives was held at the European Parliament. Key speakers included: Hans Bruyninckx, Karl Falkenberg – DG ENVI Director-General, Luc Bas – IUCN EU Representative Office Director, Janez Potočnik – currently co-chair of the UNEP International Resource Panel, Ernst von Wiezsäcker – Co-President of the Club of Rome, members of the European Parliament.

Polish delegation

Poland was represented, according to the role of the EIONET in the preparation of the SOER 2015, by the employees of the Department of Monitoring and Environmental Information of the Chief Inspectorate for Environmental Protection: Ms Anna Katarzyna Wiech, Deputy Director, EEA Management Board Member Alternate, Ms Małgorzata Bednarek, EEA/EIONET National Focal Point, Ms Barbara Albiniak, EIONET National Reference Centre for State of Environment and for Communication.

During the launch conference and the EP workshop, the achievements of EU environmental policy which resulted inter alia in the reduce of pollution and in the improvement of air and water quality as well as challenges and threats connected with ecosystem degradation, biodiversity loss, negative impact of pollution on health, production and consumption pressures were emphasized. The need for adopting new approaches that respond to systemic nature of environmental problems as well as for implementing fundamental changes in the current systems to achieve circular economy was strongly highlighted. It was noted that providing our children with good quality of life in several dozen years required appropriate actions today. They should take into account long-term perspective and complex relations between elements of environment and actions.