On 28-29 October GLOBE Germany hosted the GLOBE Europe annual Strategy Conference, organised in co-operation with the Parliamentary Council on Sustainable Development of the German Bundestag at the Paul-Löbe-Haus of the Reichstag. The meeting was attended by delegates from Belgium, Denmark, Poland, France, Estonia, Greece, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Hungary and Slovenia, with high-level ministerial speakers from Germany and the head of the European Commission delegation in  Berlin among others.

Over the three sessions of the programme the participants took stock on the implementation of the national Sustainable Development Strategies ahead of next year's review of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS) of 2006; were briefed on the impact of the Fukushima catastrophy on Germany's energy policy in the context of the long-term decarbonisation pathway, and exchanged views on the European input towards Rio+20. Click here to access the presentations.

A dinner at  the "Internationaler Club im Auswärtigen Amt" of the Foreign Office was offered to the participants by the Director-General for Economic Affairs and Sustainable Development of the Federal Foreign Office, Mr Viktor Elbling.

The General Assembly which followed the Strategy Conference agreed to call on the European Commission and EU national goverments for a stronger EU SDS in 2012, building on the vision of the Communication from the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development of the Bundestag of 28 March 2011 concerning the EU SDS.

Secondly, the General Assembly established three work streams for 2012:

• - the decarbonisation of the EU's energy mix, with a particular emphasis on the need to make progress on the implementation of the 3rd EU Energy Package of 2009 and laying the foundations of a long-term single EU market for renewable energy;

• - the reform of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy;

• - the implementation at national level of the GLOBE Natural Capital Action Plan adopted at the CBD COP10 in Nagoya in 2010.

The General Assembly elected three new Members of the Board:

• - Alessandro Bratti MP, Member of the Environment Committee of the Italian Lower House
• - Barry Gardiner MP, Labour Special Envoy for Climate Change and Ecosystems and Vice-Chair of GLOBE International
• - Konstantinos Kartalis MP, Chair of the Environment Committee of the Hellenic Parliament.