A decade after the upheavals in Eastern and Central Europe, the former Communist countries surrounding the Baltic Sea are striving to get their economic growth going. This growth will play a decisive role in Eastern and Central Europeans' endeavours to reach our level of welfare. Unfor-tunately, the changes also leave their mark on the environment, making extraordinary efforts necessary if our Eastern European neighbours are to avoid a repetition of the Western countries' environmental errors.

In 1999, Danish energy consumption lay at the 1970 level of consumption – despite growth in the gross national product of more than 60 percent. This proves that it is not a law of nature that heightened growth equals heightened pollution. Rather, environmental considerations and sustainable natural management are in the long term a precondition for continued economic growth. High environmental standards are also a precondition for the EU membership coveted by Poland and the Baltic states. Thus, it is crucial for environmental considerations to be integrated into all parts of society, and Danish sector-integrated environment activities aim at promoting this development. By targeting activities at sectors such as industry, fisheries, agriculture, transport, energy and tourism, we make sure that they are not solely the interest of environment ministries in Denmark and the Baltic region.

In the last 25 years, Denmark has solved a range of environmental problems. Conse-quently, our knowledge and expertise are in demand in many other countries facing similar environmental problems. This is not least true of countries such as Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland which run significant environmental activities on their own. Denmark's assistance will enable them to take another step on the road towards sustainable development. That is our responsibility, too.

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The Baltic region puts the environment on the agenda