https://gen.gr.jp]. Since 1994 GEN has expanded its activities to improve, promote, and develop the ecolabelling. The following are the report of activities carried out during 1998. Annual Meeting GEN has hold the 1998 Annual Meeting in Berlin ,Germany, from 29th to 30th of October 1998. 34 representatives from 14 member organisations and 11 non-members attended this meeting. In conjunction with the annual meeting, from 26th to 28th of October, Green Goods V International Conference has been held co-sponsered by OECD and Federal Environmental Agency of Germany, which gathered 180 participants. Executive Committee Meetings The Executive Committee has during 1998 had two meetings, in San Francisco, USA, 22nd of June, and in Berlin, Germany, 28th of October. Three organisations have applied for GEN membership and the full membership approved the following three new members at the annual meeting. GEN has 21 members. The European Union, DGXI, E4 Thailand Environment Institute, Thailand Environment 2000 Foundation, Zimbabwe At the annual meeting in 1998, it was proposed that technical assistance program should be available not only to GEN members but also to potential members as well, and the assistance offered more flexible. The GEN members accepted the proposal for an espanded technical assistance program. Though during 1998 there have not been any applications for the technical assistance program, no assistance has been practised. The position paper on mutual recognition "System for Mutual Recognition" was presented by Mr Polak at the annual meeting. The status of this paper was thoroughly discussed. The expression "Mutual Recognition" was defined according to the ISO standard 14024, article 5.17. The document should be regarded as a discussion paper and the members were invited to give their comments to Mr Polak. Mr Polak will develop the draft further and a final version will be presented at the next annual meeting. GEN has participated in the ISO working group 207/SC3 during the development of the standards 14020 and 14024. These working groups are expected to disband soon, as they finished their tasks. The GEN members agreed on adopting the ISO standards 14020 and 14024 as the GEN code of good practice at the annual meeting. The first version of Product Category List has been made up and distributed to the members at the annual meeting. The list is intended to give information not only of GEN members but also of other ecolabelling schemes, and will be updated twice a year. In 1998 GEN published two issues of the GENews, in which GEN informs about the organisation, the GEN activities and its members. The two GENews have focused on workshop held in 1997 in Tokyo, and on ISO environmental labelling standards. The members have also presented their programs and news in these papers. GEN has transferred its web server from Canada to Japan, and thoroughly reconstructed its home pages, which include Product Category List and GENews in PDF files, and is linked to members' own sites. The new address is [ 1997 financial audit has been carried out by Showa Ota & Co, and the financial report was accepted by the members at the annual meeting. GEN has made 3000 copies of the third version of its brochure. They has distributed to the members and interested parties. GEN has two secretariat and the responsibility for the administration of GEN is shared between General Affair office, GAO, in Japan and SIS in Sweden. GAO is responsible for financial matters, the GEN newsletter and for updating the Home Page. SIS is responsible for administration of the meetings, information, keeping contact with members and prospective members. GEN Members (December 1998): Austrian Consumer Organisation Austria Associaocao Brasileira de Normas Tecnicas Brazil TerraChoic Canada State Directive for Environment Croatia ASAOS, Supreme Council for Awarding the Ecolabel Greece Federal Environmental Agency Germany Ministry of the Environment Israel Japan Environment Association Japan Korea Environmental Labelling Association Korea Attache De Gouvrement, Ministrere De L'Environment Luxembourg Norweigan Foundation for Ecolabelling Norway EDF, Environment and Development Foundation R.O.C., Taiwan AENOR-Medio Ambiente Spain SIS Ecolabelling Sweden UK Ecolabelling Board Great Britain Green Seal USA The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, The Green Good Buy Sweden Environmental Choice New Zealand New Zealand Thailand Environment Institute Thailand Environment 2000 Foundation of Zimbabwe Zimbabwe European Commission, Directorate General XI, E4 EU