For this second report, which was used by the Environment Ministers of Europe at their fourth ministerial conference in Aarhus, Denmark in June 1998, the mandate was to report progress on the main issues identified in the first assessment. The report highlights that the policy measures that have been taken have not yet produced a significant improvement in the state of the environment overall. Many environmental policies have led to 'end-of-pipe' measures which have resulted in some improvement in some areas, but not enough to cope with increasing infrastructure development, production and consumption.
The most obvious progress in reducing pressure on the environment has been made in those areas where an efficient international framework of action has been established. The absence of any such pan-European framework has delayed progress, even for the assessment of these problems. The response to this report will hopefully lead to a broad political debate about the programmes and targets needed to deal with the main issues that are addressed.
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