Published: 02 Apr 2008
- The President of the European Parliament,
Hans-Gert Pöttering, visited today
the European Environment Agency, where he
was welcomed by its Executive Director,
Professor Jacqueline McGlade. President
Pöttering had a short but lively discussion
with the EEA's Management Board, chaired
by Lars Erik Liljelund.
The Management Board
is the decision-making body of the European
Environment Agency. The Board consists of
representatives of the 32 member countries,
two representatives of the European Commission
and two representatives designated by the
European Parliament. The Board members from
the EU Member States, the Commission and
those designated by the Parliament have
voting rights.
President Pöttering
commended the prominent level of relations
between the EEA and the European Parliament
— in particular with the committees dealing
with environment, transport, agriculture
and climate change. The President of the
EP shared with the Board his expectations
about next year's United Nations Climate
Change Conference in Copenhagen, the seat
of the EEA.
During an informal exchange
of views with the Management Board, President
Pöttering had the opportunity to learn,
first-hand, about the benefits of EEA membership
for the five non-EU member countries which
are part of the EEA (Iceland, Liechtenstein,
Norway, Switzerland and Turkey). One representative
from each of these countries took part in
the discussion with Mr Pöttering to
explain their countries' contribution to
the work of the Agency.
During his two-day
visit to Denmark, President Pöttering
dealt extensively with current environmental
challenges, in particular climate change.
This was the object of his lecture at the
University of Copenhagen yesterday, where
Professor McGlade also delivered the speech
'Decentralisation for a post-carbon society'.
