The issue of "Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns" has gained a new impetus in international debates as a result of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg 2002. The States now face the challenge of fleshing out the "10-year-framework for programmes" by integrating programme content at their respective national levels. Germany currently faces a multitude of approaches and initiatives to promote sustainable production and consumption patterns,  and the challenge now lies in how to consolidate these methods. Ecologic supports the German Federal Environmental Ministry and the Federal Environment Agency in this project.

The German drinking water supply system is under pressure: European Commission plans indicate that the water supply should no longer be subject to municipal self-administration, but instead to European competition rules, and maybe even to a mandatory tendering procedure. Such a development would have far-reaching effects on the German drinking water supply. Against this background, Ecologic, in co-operation with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, invited political actors from the European and national level, as well as representatives from the water industry, to an expert workshop that took place on 21 January 2004 in Berlin.

Ecologic organises an international workshop on the "Economic Analysis according to the EU Water Framework Directive: Present status of Implementation" that will take place on 20 - 21 November 2003 on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear safety (BMU). The workshop is intended to further the international exchange of experience and addresses Member States and first Round Accession Countries.

The Evangelische Akademie Loccum hosted a conference on "GATS, EU-internal market and the liberalisation of general services in Germany". Wenke Hansen talked about the quality and price of water services in Europa.

The workshop focussed on the aspects that are to be covered in the report 2005 to the European Commission. Approximately 150 German actors of water resource management discussed results, problems and new approaches and the actual state of affairs with regards to the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive.

As part of implementing the Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC-Directive), the Best Available Techniques (BAT) for waste treatment industries were identified in a European-wide process and described in the BAT REFerence document (BREF) "waste treatment industries".

The workshop aims at continuing and intensifying the process of an international exchange of experiences with the on-going activities which was started by a workshop in September 2001 in Bruges. It will focus on the exchange of information regarding experiences in the field of air pollution abatement measures - both their planning (drawing up action plans according to art. 7 (3) and preparation of plans or programmes according to art. 8 (3) of the Framework Directive) and their implementation. The workshop will serve as a forum for exchanging experiences on the national implementation of the EU air quality directives with emphasis on air pollution abatement measures.