The new Member States' thorough preparation for the accession to the European Union is a precondition for an effective enlargement of the EU. Therefore, not only the national level but also the regional and local level should be placed in the centre of attention, in order to implement European legislation. The aim of the two projects "Capacity Building in Latvia and Lithuania" is to prepare regional and local environmental administration in Latvia and Lithuania for their EU-accession.

For the preparations of the informal Council of Environmental Ministers under the Austrian EU presidency, Ecologic contributed to a discussion paper on the urban environment and environmental technologies. The paper discusses in particular the Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment of the European Commission and the potential for the use of environmental technologies in cities.

The forthcoming enlargement of the European Union poses a major political, economic and ecological challenge for the EU, the Member States and the Candidate Countries. One of the last and most difficult chapters to be discussed in the accession negotiations is the agricultural chapter of the aquis communautaire. The presentations and additional background information of the international workshop entitled "EU Enlargement: Impact of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on Environment and Nature" that took place on 4-5 September 2001 in Bonn have been published in the BfN-Skripten

For this study the results of the meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on access and benefit sharing of genetic resources, held in Bonn in October 2001, were analysed. The study was compiled in order to prepare the German negotiating position for the Sixth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The recommendations made in this study are based on an assessment of Germany's interests in access and benefit sharing of genetic resources.

The debate over possible health effects caused by electromagnetic fields (EMF) like e.g. mobile phones has increased in the last years. Ecologic produced a study about the "analysis of the scientific discourse on possible health effects and ecological risks by mobile telecommunication and transmitters" for the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag.

In the project report "Ecotax" Ecologic presents the state of the art and perspectives with regard to Environmental Tax Reform. The report reflects the scientific and political debate in Germany, as well as experiences in other European countries and the discussion on an EU-wide harmonisation of energy taxes.

With the project "The Mediterranean Action Plan and the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: Identifying Goals and Capacities – Improving Co-operation and Synergies", Ecologic focuses on a series of institutional challenges and opportunities which the two major regional organisations in the Mediterranean basin are facing.

The looming perspective of growing mountains of packaging waste in Europe led several Member States to implement packaging and packaging waste policies and induced the EU to formulate the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. The Directive, established in 1994, has contributed to the reduction of environmental problems resulting from that waste. But has it been really successful? Has it achieved its goals? What are the reasons for the mixed results?

On 15 October 2003, Wenke Hansen, Ecologic, one of the main authors of the comparative study on the international water sector presented some key messages of this study. On the occasion of the publication of the study in five volumes and the European Commission's Communication on the Internal Market Strategy the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour (BAK) and the Austrian Association of Cities had invited to the event at the Permanent Representation of Austria to the European Union in Brussels "Liberalisation of water for Europe's citizens? – The Internal Market Strategy in the light of European experiences".

Keya Choudhury; Darla Nickel, and R. Andreas Kraemer 2001: Klärschlammentsorgung in Europa. Ecologic Institute, Berlin.

Kraemer, R. Andreas: Results of the "Cardiff-Processes" - Assessing the State of Development And Charting the Way Ahead. Ecologic, Berlin.

Kraemer, R. Andreas; Anneke Klasing 2001: Integrating Environmental Concerns into the General Affairs Council – Best Practice in Integrating Environment into Foreign Affairs. Ecologic, Berlin.

Documenting the results of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop held in Budapest on 21 to 23 January 1999, the book "Responding to Environmental Conflicts: Implications for Theory and Practice" provides an overview of environment and security challenges, addresses methods for assessing environmental security and their application in case studies, and presents views on the role of international and environmental institutions in preventing and dealing with environmental conflicts.

The aim of this study is to examine the transposition and implementation of Article 12 of the Seveso II Directive, also known as COMAH (96/82/EC), in six EU Member States. Article 12 addresses the land-use planning issues associated with controlling major accident hazards involving dangerous substances. As the Directive should have been transposed by February 1999, the appropriate legislation should have been in place in order to enable this study to be undertaken. However, this proved not to be the case for every country. Experience in relation to both the transposition and implementation of Article 12 of the Seveso II Directive in the six case study countries has been variable. In three countries – Spain, Italy and England – Article 12 has been transposed virtually word for word into national legislation. In the other three countries, transposition has been undertaken differently: only a relatively minor amendment was made to existing German legislation, whereas in Denmark only the first paragraph of Article 12 has been transposed. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands the Article has not yet been transposed.

Tarasofsky, Richard G.; Stefanie Pfahl 2001: Trading Away the Last Ancient Forests. The threats to forests from trade liberalisation under the WTO. Hamburg.