This is the third state and outlook report on the European environment produced by the European Environment Agency (EEA) since 1994. Looking back, the last report, published in 1999 concluded that, despite 25 years of Community environmental policy, environmental quality in the European Union (EU) was mixed and that the unsustainable development of some key economic sectors was the major barrier to further improvements. That remains the EEA's key conclusion, despite significant progress on some issues demonstrating that environmental policy works. Were we to fast-forward to the year 2010, it would be my strong hope that in its next state and outlook report, the EEA would be able to report significant environmental improvements, not least as a result of reversing unsustainable trends in sectors such as energy, agriculture and transport.