Environment Ministers from the 25 EU member states met in a marvellous setting in Austria to discuss the EU Thematic Strategy on Urban Environment. The informal two-day working sessions allowed the ministers to interact as friends and colleagues in order to grasp a better understanding of their respective countries’ situations vis-à-vis environmental problems and possible solutions to urban demands.

The working sessions focused on the sharing of experiences and the better employment of measures on issues of sustainable transport and urban construction, air quality and waste management. This provided for a learning experience for all by better understanding the different measures that each EU country has been employing in the combating of air and noise pollution within the urban areas.

One of the sessions related particularly to issues of improved environmental technologies, mobility and climate change was a televised session. In this session, the general public and representatives from various NGOs were able to put forward questions to all of the EU 25 delegates, voicing concerns from all spheres of society that undoubtedly in some way or another have been and will be affected by any environmental measures adopted within the European Union.