Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health: Closing address
Ms Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe
12 March 2010
Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,
When we started preparations for this Conference, we really wanted to make it a conference that would be exciting, unique and memorable.
We have indeed had an exciting time. After 20 years of the European environment and health process, all of you still manage to keep the adrenaline pumping and the enthusiasm flowing. Don’t you agree?
We had a unique time. Climate change made sure to make an intervention of its own, to ensure it was indeed a unique conference!
And, as the photos behind me show, we have had a memorable time.
We have had a very rich programme, full of interesting and thought-provoking sessions, panel debates and side events. We also had award ceremonies recognizing the important awareness-raising and advocacy role of nongovernmental organizations and journalists.
And yet again, for the fifth time, the Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health has proved to be an excellent opportunity to share knowledge and to reaffirm our commitment to the core values of this process. Don’t you agree that this is a good sign that we will certainly be here again for a sixth ministerial conference on environment and health in 2016?
Let me take this opportunity to thank Ms Stefania Prestigiacomo, the Minister of the Environment, Land and Sea of Italy, and Dr Ferruccio Fazio, the Minister of Health of Italy, for their uplifting closing addresses, and once again for their support to this milestone event.
Let me also express my gratitude to Mr Pietro Vignali, the Lord Mayor of Parma for his outstanding hospitality, and also to Mr John Dalli, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy for being with us today, and for delivering an inspiring keynote address. Let me also thank Mr Asamoa Baah, Deputy Director-General, WHO, Geneva, for being here with us throughout the Conference, and thanks also for the excellent video message that we received from our Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I know the Conference has opened an exciting new chapter in the way European governments will work on environment and health. So please allow me to quickly recap the highlights of this Conference and summarize our key conclusions.
We have now endorsed a new vision for the future of the European environment and health process – a vision that will make the process significantly stronger than before.
We have taken bold steps in the right direction – setting new goals and commitments – and, most importantly, we have agreed on a new conceptual and operational framework for the future of the process.
And we have accomplished what we came here to do. By giving the process a much higher political profile and by strengthening its governance mechanisms, we have sowed the seeds of a renewed, more powerful and more integrated environment and health process in Europe.
I would like to welcome the unanimous endorsement by acclamation by the present 53 Member States of the WHO European Region of the Fifth Ministerial Conference Declaration and Commitment to Act, as well as the way forward.
Also, I know we have moved one step forward when I realize that this Conference Declaration commits governments to meet concrete targets in the next decade – something that we have all been striving towards in the history of the European environment and health process.
The targets have been set to ensure:
- access to safe water and sanitation,
- opportunities for physical activity and a healthy diet,
- disease prevention through improved air quality, and
- healthy environments free of toxic chemicals.
As we agreed, we will be monitoring and evaluating progress very closely in the coming years as we gradually move towards the sixth ministerial conference in 2016.
I would like to welcome the decision that climate change and health will now become a priority in the process. Our joint work will be based on the European framework for action, and I hope we will soon see a move towards the creation of more green jobs and more investments in new technologies.
Let me also express trust that the health sector will provide an example to other sectors and lead on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. I hope that in the near future, the health and environment sectors can jointly act as advocates towards other government sectors and promote all our causes, principles and ways of working.
Another achievement of this Conference has been that, through the Declaration, you, the Member States of the European Region, have pledged to reduce socioeconomic and gender inequalities in the human environment and health. I encourage you to pay particular attention to vulnerable groups and to find more effective ways – at the intersection of environment and health – to address the noncommunicable disease epidemic.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We have our work cut out for us and the only way we can achieve all this by the next conference is to substantially strengthen the political and technical coordination of our efforts.
By involving ministers and a wide group of key stakeholders directly in the work of the European Environment and Health Ministerial Board, I know we will not fail. Through the careful work of the newly set up European Environment and Health Task Force, we will together ensure implementation and monitoring of the process, and yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, we will considerably strengthen the status of public health in the European Region of WHO.
The 53 Member States of the WHO European Region have once again endorsed the defining values of WHO – solidarity, equity and participation. By translating our commitment to these principles into concrete action, we will be able to move closer to more just and more equitable societies across Europe.
The World Health Organization will stand by you and support you in your quest to meet these new commitments, and help to achieve tangible results on addressing climate change, tackling socioeconomic inequalities, and strengthening international cooperation.
Distinguished Delegates,
Thank you. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your enthusiasm. Thank you for validating this process through your national policies and strategies.
Distinguished partners, Commissioner Dalli and your staff in the European Commission and European agencies, I am grateful for your input, involvement and the difference you have made throughout the last years.
Dr Jon Hilmar Iversen of Norway, Dr Corrado Clini of Italy, as co-chairs of the European Environment and Health Committee, you have steered the preparations for this Conference. We could not have achieved all that we have in these past three days without you.
I am also grateful to the keynote speakers, the chairs, the rapporteurs, the members of the panels, and thank them for their commitment and active participation.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
After all this hard work, I have one final commitment that needs to be fulfilled: that of ensuring a host country for the sixth ministerial conference on environment and health. I would like to encourage Member States to consider the idea of hosting this conference in 2016.
I look forward to meeting many of you in Moscow in September 2010, where we will gather for the sixtieth session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe, to discuss and endorse the outcomes of this Conference through a resolution or even more than one resolution.
Finally, please join me in thanking all those who made this happen, friends from the past such as those that initiated such a wonderful journey through the environmental determinants of health: like Jo Asvall, like my predecessor Marc Danzon, who agreed to have this Conference this year in Parma, and other directors, previous ministers of health and environment, advisers and colleagues.
I must also thank the chairpersons of each session who did a wonderful job in ensuring that the Conference flowed along.
But also a big thank you from my heart goes to Leen Meulenbergs. You will all know what I mean when I say that I owe her a lot, because without her the Declaration and the future of the process would not have been negotiated. The Declaration is your declaration, it is not our declaration in the secretariat. You agreed to it, you adopted it by acclamation. Thank you, Leen, for all your work.
Finally, my hearfelt thanks go to all those whom you know are here today: the staff of the WHO Regional Office for Europe, those you have worked with and seen visibly on the podium, but also those behind the stage, as well as the Italian support staff, the interpreters and those who have contributed to the organization of this Conference.
Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish you good health, a safe journey home and I hope to see you all again soon.
With these words, I now declare this Conference closed.
