PARIS (Reuters) - President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday proposed to non-governmental environmental organizations (NGOs) negotiations on three themes: prevention of global warming, biodiversity and health.
According to participants, he also pledged to suspend any "heavy" decision on subjects as sensitive as nuclear, GMOs or highways before the "Grenelle de l'Environnement" that he intends to organize in September. October.
The meeting with the Head of State and the Minister of Ecology, Alain Juppé, aimed to prepare this conference, whose title refers to the Grenelle social agreements which concluded the great strikes of May 1968.
The leaders of the nine NGOs invited to the Elysee Palace said they were satisfied despite the persistence of significant differences, especially on nuclear and GMOs.
"The 'Grenelle of the environment' will not be yet another conference to see the ecological emergency and conclude that action must be taken," Nicolas Sarkozy told these organizations, according to the text of his speech broadcast by the Elysee Palace. "This is indeed a negotiation on concrete measures."
"We must prevent climate change and its consequences (...) We must preserve biodiversity (...) We must prevent the consequences of pollution on health", continued the Head of State. "These are my three priorities for action and I suggest that they be the three priorities of the 'Grenelle de l'Environnement'.
He specified that this should lead to a contract between the State, local authorities, unions, companies and associations. "I want this contract to engage those responsible," insisted Nicolas Sarkozy.
This contract should initially cover a period of five years and the commitments made will be subject to an annual evaluation, he said.
He stressed that this was only a first contact, which would be followed by further consultations with NGOs and other stakeholders.
"CULTURAL CONVERSION"?
Working groups will meet in the coming weeks under the leadership of Alain Juppé.
They will focus on several themes: the fight against global warming, biodiversity, the impact of pollution on health, natural resources, rural development, dialogue with farmers and ecological governance.
During a press conference held separately, the Minister of State for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Planning stressed that the Head of State wanted to bring together the same partners again, on July 14, to "a progress meeting".
Nicolas Sarkozy proposed that interregional meetings and polls allow the French to "express themselves on what they consider to be a priority" and promised that there would be no "taboo subjects".
"There will be points of divergence. I do not want difficult subjects to be dodged," said the head of state. "I want the discussion to be frank and lead to ambitious decisions that go beyond the lowest common denominator."
After the meeting, which lasted more than an hour and a half, the president of Greenpeace France estimated that Nicolas Sarkozy and Alain Juppé had "shown a great sign of openness", even if the president recalled his positions in favor of nuclear.
"Whether it is on energy, nuclear power, agriculture or incineration, we will have hard points to negotiate," said Yannick Jadot. "But we hope that the conditions on which we have worked will allow these hard points to be tackled with confidence in order to have real breakthrough policies and bring France on the path of environmental excellence."
An opinion shared with a few nuances by the leaders of WWF, Friends of the Earth, Ecology Without Borders, the Climate Action Network, France Nature Environment and the ROC League (chaired by astrophysicist Hubert Reeves).
The environmentalist television host Nicolas Hulot, who had proposed to the candidates for the Elysee Palace; during the campaign, to sign an "ecological pact", for its part reported a kind of moratorium on the most sensitive issues.
“One thing has been recorded this morning,” he said. "This is because between now and the Grenelle de l'Environnement, in major subjects concerning sustainable development, no heavy decision will be taken. Everything will be suspended at the Grenelle de l'Environnement."
"There will be no decisions taken in the meantime," confirmed Alain Bougrain-Dubourg, president of the Bird Protection League. "It's one of the guarantees we got today."
"It seems to me that we are dispassionating the debate and the issue," said Nicolas Hulot, for whom the fact that a president and a right-wing minister devote their first Monday in power to these subjects augurs "perhaps to a cultural conversion ".
source:
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/21052007/290/sarkozy-propose-aux-ong-ecologistes-de-negocier-sur-trois-sujets.html
