This joint event was part of two FP7 projects: OPEN:EU and INSTREAM and was organised by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) and Ecologic Institute Berlin. It brought together experts, statisticians, policy makers and representatives of civil society organisations to discuss and share experiences on how to improve the use of indicators to assess progress on economic and sustainability goals.

<p>&#13; Ingmar von Homeyer, Ecologic Institute Senior Fellow and Head of the Ecologic Institute representation in Brussels, provided an assessment of the Thematic Strategies as the most important ‘tool’ of the European Union’s 6th Environment Action Programme (6EAP) at a conference organised by Brussels Environment in the context of the 2010 Belgian EU Presidency.</p>&#13;

<p>&#13; At the 7th meeting of the European Commission‘s "Expert Group on Cross Compliance" Stephanie Schlegel, Fellow at Ecologic, gave a presentation on cross compliance and certification schemes, discussing the potential links and synergies between the two approaches. Her presentation is available for download.</p>

<p>&#13; Electric vehicles can potentially make significant contributions towards achieving the EU’s climate protection goals in the transport sector. In the context of a stakeholder workshop convened by the DG Environment of the European Commission  in Brussels, Max Grünig, Fellow at Ecologic Institute Berlin, presented a summary of the interactions between the energy sector and electric vehicles.</p>&#13;

<p>&#13; The One Planet Economy Network held its Workshop on Scenarios and Policy Analysis in Brussels (Belgium) on 8 and 9 September 2010.  R. Andreas Kraemer moderated the workshop, which was part of the One Planet Economy Network: European Union (OPEN:EU) joint research project sponsored by the European Commission, DG Research, as part of the 7th Framework Programme for Research.</p>&#13;

<p> Over the years the number of think tanks in Brussels has increased significantly. Against this general backdrop, the lecture by Ecologic Senior Fellow Ingmar von Homeyer at the College of Europe in Bruges focussed on environmental think tanks dealing with EU environmental policy. He argued that the role and characteristics of the environmental think tanks differ significantly from those of the Brussels &ldquo;generalist&rdquo; think tanks, which focus on a much broader spectrum of EU policies than their environmental counterparts.</p>

<p> Decision makers and policy experts from both sides of the Atlantic converged in Brussels to discuss the relationship of the European Union and the United States in a changing and multipolar world.</p>

Since 2007, on initiative by the European Parliament, the European Commission (DG Relex) has sponsored transatlantic dialogues with a view to developing new approaches for handling global challenges. A conference in Brussels on 16 November 2009 reviewed the results of the first 5 pilot projects. R. Andreas Kraemer presented the outcomes of the Arctic Transform dialogue initiated by Ecologic Institute.

<p> &quot;Emerging Stronger from the Recession to Tackle the Challenges of Social Cohesion and Sustainable Development&quot; was the theme of an expert workshop convened by the European Commission (DG Employment) in Brussels on 9 September 2009.&nbsp; Ecologic Institute contributed a background paper, and R. Andreas Kraemer was invited as keynote speaker on &quot;Taking Advantage of the Crisis: Synergies between Environmental Policy and Social Inclusion&quot;.</p>