I would for example advocate increased investment in universal access to quality drinking water. This vital right is a sine qua non for all applicant countries required to comply with the standards in the European directives. It should also be a priority in the other countries in transition, which are frequently forced to offer their populations sub-standard drinking water. More generally, the transition countries should contribute actively to the mobilization of the international community in favour of sustainable development, in particular on the occasion of the Johannesburg World Summit in 2002. In this connection, it is impossible to imagine ecodevelopment without ensuring that individuals enjoy basic security and solidarity.
Economic concerns are inseparable from social ones, first and foremost health.
The deterioration in health in some countries should be a source of concern for all. Epidemics recognize no frontiers. The international financial institutions can, and increasingly must, help to improve public health by encouraging, for example, investment in the pharmaceuticals industry and hospital modernization, the distribution of medicines and the dissemination of means of prevention. That is a factor on which the ability of economies to anticipate and innovate is increasingly dependent. It will increasingly tend to tip the scales when decisions have to be made on where to make investments linked with the new technologies.