Berlin. The Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt showed "remarkable achievements in environmental protection" and "pushed many innovations within small- and medium-sized enterprises", "set high standards", "proved that privatisation must not be a nightmare but - done in the right way - a real dividend for the whole society". Gerhard Schröder, Federal Chancellor, acknowledged these activities in Berlin today on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Europe's largest environmental foundation which was provided with an initial capital amounting to around DM 2.5 billion from the proceeds of privatising the steel group Salzgitter AG.

Addressing an audience of some 1,600 in the "Haus der Kulturen der Welt" the Chancellor pointed out that the foundation concentrated its initial activities predominantly towards the former East German states - certainly a "right decision". The way of financial backing served as a model because 25% of all funds were meant for climate protection - a right decision to advance the use of renewable energies and the careful use of finite energy resources which was a question of central importance in Germany. Innovative technologies in this field improved the chances of small- and medium-sized enterprises. Schröder: "That is of use for the whole society." From the Chancellor's point of view it was a good sense that the foundation stressed the importance of nature conservancy, even if the environmental technology would continue to be in the centre of the foundation's activities.

The Chancellor further introduced the initiatives of the Federal Government in the field of nature conservancy and environmental protection and underlined the importance of strategies connecting ecological-, economical- and socio-political objectives. Such a national strategy of sustainable development should be advanced in every respect though it could not be "prescribed" by the government. All activists had to adopt the topic as "their own business". The idea of the foundation was "to live sustainability". Schröder: "The closeness to the project partners and to their problems is a remarkable feature of the foundation's work."

Professor Dr. Hans Tietmeyer, Chairman of the foundation's board of advisors, underlined in his greeting the necessity of numerous active and supporting people to build Europe's largest environmental foundation. He aimed his particular thanks at the former Federal Minister of Finance, Dr. Theo Waigel, for his personal commitment and decisive contribution towards the founding procedure of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, the far-sightedness of the German parliament and its members to support the foundation's independence and the opening of the board for different groups of society.

Dr. Theo Waigel continued describing the founding procedure and the initial capital, more than DM 2,5 billion from the privatisation proceeds of the steel group Salzgitter AG, as "a tidy sum". At that time the alternative was to spend that yield for the Federal budget to relieve the political pressure from a cost-cutting budget policy. After all, the decision was made in favour of a signal for the environmental policy: a foundation aimed at promoting environmental projects - in order to advance predominantly ecological and innovative products and processes under particular consideration of small- and medium-sized enterprises and of the former East German states - and the introduction of the German environmental award. As a result of the Salzgitter AG privatisation the national "silver was not flogged but turned to gold". Waigel: "The present environmental political apparatus is unimaginable without the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt".

Prof. Dr. Dagmar Schipanski, the Thuringian State Minister for Science, Research and Art emphasized in her speech the priority of environmental protection as a preventive measure to avoid any damages in favour of a policy only aimed at repairing. Still today some industrial countries were facing difficulties in understanding their global ecological responsibility. Therefore it was very encouraging to pay tribute to a large foundation showing the awareness that technological development and environmental protection were two mutually dependent principles for industrial countries.

Mrs Schipanski acknowledged the foundation's initial work in the former East German states in face of the enormous environmental strain - the latter a legacy of the former SED regime. Not only an urgent need for renewal but also a great advisory demand in the field of environmental protection was given at that time because industry, local authorities and associations had to adapt themselves to an entire new legal situation and were to drop down the burden of high ecological damage as fast as possible. Here the financial backing of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt was not only a valuable support but also an important investment in the future research and technology sites in Eastern Germany. The foundation committed considerably to sharpen environmental awareness that leads to concrete action.

The minister referred to a number of the foundation's climate protection projects and to others aimed at a renewal of ecological damaged important cultural assets. She explained the objectives of different chairs at some universities in Eastern Germany which were awarded by the foundation and underlined that such initiatives were essential for Germany: because foundations possessed the quality of a purposeful support of innovative power in our society.

Therefore one main task of the government was to help foundations in their sponsoring role for the public welfare. Whereas this was already very common in the United States, a great deal more of political work still must be done in Germany to bring the idea of a well-working foundations' system on its due position. The Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt took up this position and was "extremely sucessful" regarding quantity and quality of its projects. Mrs Schipanski expressed her wish for the future that the foundation might "carry on working with that remarkable judiciousness and far-sightedness".

In two discussions, presented by Ranga Yogeshwar, WDR, Professor Dr. Andreas Troge, Head of the Umweltbundesamt, named the founding of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt "a stroke of genius". Dr. Angelika Zahrnt, Chairwoman of the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschlands (BUND), described the foundation's activities - especially in the field of environmental education - as "very effective". And the Managing Director of the Solarfabrik, Georg Salvamoser, suggested that the Chancellor should double the foundation's assets if he wanted to support the environment.

Prof. Dr. Paul J. Crutzen, Nobel prize winnner, Dr. Claus Hipp, the Chairman of the environmental committee of the Deutscher Industrie und Handelstag (DIHT), Professor Dr. Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Professor Dr. Joachim Treusch, Chairman of the Forschungszentrum Jülich agreed that environmental problems could only be solved using a global approach. Töpfer: "What happens in Africa is as close as what happens in Poland. It is possible to manage jointly the matters of our common planet."

Announcing to provide up to DM 10 billion - on the occasion of the 10th anniversary - for a new project as a special gift for the youth, the Secretary General of the DBU, Fritz Brickwedde, concluded the ceremony. The project's objective was to link enterprises and schools together in order to accompany pupils on an "expedition into the world of economy" and to support the interchange between schools from Eastern and Western Germany. 500 schools - that means 500.000 pupils - and 500 enterprises should become linked together.