168/02
Berlin, 18 July 2002

New York meeting increases prospects for success at the Johannesburg World Summit

After the one-day consultations of representatives from 27 UN Member States and the European Union in New York on 17 July 2002, the prospects of a successful outcome of the World Summit inJohannesburg have increased. The meeting was convened by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the South African president Thabo Mbeki and resulted in considerably closing the gap between the positionsof the European Union and developing countries.

At the New York conference, the developing countries accepted for the first time the EU's proposal to set concrete targets for substantially improving access to sanitation by 2015. They alsoaccepted the necessity to set further development targets. The details of these, however, have not yet been agreed upon. The USA and Japan did not obtain any significant support for their objectionto setting binding new targets for international environmental and development policies.

The positions could also be brought more into line on the key question of better market access for products from developing countries. Clarifying this is crucial to the success of the WorldSummit.

Federal Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin, who headed the German delegation, stated in New York: "With this conference, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the South African government havecreated favourable starting conditions for the negotiations at the Johannesburg Summit. We played our part in making considerable progress in the preparations that had been held up since early July."