The role of the EU in tourism should be one of enabling the sector to maintain high competitive levels with respect to other destinations, to support the promotion of the different tourist destinations, to look after sustainable development, to foment private and public cooperation, to give greater relevance to the sector at a political level as it is a fundamental economic sector and therefore should be consider3ed strategic, plus safeguard the rights of tourist consumers. In order to do so, they should support current initiatives that the EU is developing as regards sustainable tourism and which will conclude with approval, in the year 2007, of a communication on "Agenda 21 European Tourism"