ABSTRACT
The UN Conference on Environment and Development (better known as the Rio Earth Summit 1 ) in Rio de Janeiro, 1992, was seen by many as the beginning of a new ecological era. At this conference, the EU was granted ‘full participant status’ giving it many of the same rights as the participating states (Bretherton and Vogler 1999: 91). At the same conference, the EU also committed itself to the concept of sustainable development. In 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), held in Johannesburg, set out to evaluate the obstacles to progress and the results achieved ten years on. The Johannesburg Summit must be seen as part of a post-millennium continuum that includes the trade talks in Doha and the development talks in Monterrey. The 2002 Summit marks the tenth anniversary of the EU’s commitment to sustainable development and as such, provides the perfect opportunity for a critical reflection regarding the EU’s engagement with the sustainability agenda. This chapter examines to what extent the barriers and constraints that have confronted EU attempts to implement sustainable development post-Rio provide important insights into the EU’s behaviour at the World Summit. As such, it represents a timely critical assessment of the EU’s relationship with the concept of sustainable development.
