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Italy-U.S. Joint Statement on Environmental Cooperation
We, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States of America and the Minister for the Environment and Land Conservation of Italy, met in Washington on October 16, 2002 to discuss enhancing cooperation between our organizations. We have many common goals, and we recognize that we may be able to achieve our goals more quickly and efficiently by working together and sharing experiences.
This cooperation would be built on the foundation laid by Prime Minister Berlusconi and President Bush when he visited Rome in July 2001, and the President hosted Prime Minister Berlusconi at Camp David last month. We have such a strong foundation because:
- The United States and Italy are committed to addressing global, regional and local environmental threats. Our governments are firmly committed to protecting the safety and health of our citizens, and we plan to work together to assist governments in other countries to protect the environmental health of their citizens by implementing initiatives that we announced at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa;
- The United States and Italy share strong traditions in environmental and health research, and have a long history of collaboration, which is coordinated under the Science and Technology Agreement between the two governments;
- The United States and Italy recognize that joint actions to protect human health and the environment will effectively contribute to shaping prosperous, secure and sustainable economies and will also benefit future generations;
At this time, we have identified environmental issues relating to children's health, environmental monitoring, contaminated sites remediation and the exchange of experts and officials from our respective agencies as promising areas for sharing information and exchanging best practices.
We intend to continue this cooperation at the technical level on these matters, and on other matters as appropriate, consistent with our respective domestic procedures and processes. Furthermore, we intend to meet again to discuss progress and achievements in our cooperative work.
_______/signed/___________
The Honorable Altero Matteoli
Minister
Ministry for the Environment and
Land Conservation of Italy
_______/signed/__________________
The Honorable Christine Todd Whitman
Administrator
Environmental Protection Agency of
The United States of America
Washington, DC October 16, 2002
