The Sixth Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe” opened Wednesday 10 October 2007, at the Sava Center in Belgrade, Serbia. Conference Chair Saŝa Dragin, Minister of Environmental Protection, Serbia, opened the meeting. Over 1,000 delegates were welcomed by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Serbia Boris Tadic. Delegates also heard a presentation from Sviatoslav Kurulenko, First Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection, Ukraine, who passed the “Environment for Europe torch” from Kiev to Belgrade. Marek Belka, Executive Secretary, UNECE and Achim Steiner, Executive Director, UNEP also made opening presentations. As a finale to the opening session delegates enjoyed a Serbian dance and acrobatic performance.

In the morning plenary session delegates heard keynote addresses and interventions on assessment and implementation. They discussed the state of environment and addressed monitoring and assessment, the implementation of multilateral environment agreements, and the findings of UNECE environmental performance reviews. In the afternoon plenary two special sessions were convened: a joint session on education for sustainable development (ESD) and a session on biodiversity progress and challenges. Delegates heard keynote addresses, interventions from countries and organizations, and roundtables on both issues. Before closing, delegates also adopted draft statements on ESD and on biodiversity.