A European Union-aided environment program has been launched in northeast China's Liaoning Province, a traditional industrial base in Shenyang on December 13.

With grants worth 37 million euros (about 42 million US dollars), the Liaoning project is the EU's largest environment program in China.

The project includes public awareness, management of water sources, management of air quality, management of energy, industrial restructuring, investment promotion, and city planning.

Speaking at opening ceremony in the provincial capital of Shenyang last Friday, EU ambassador to China, Endymion Wilkinson, said the implementation of this project will help Liaoning control pollution and solve problems inherent in the course of modernization and the adjustment of social and economic structures.

The five-year project marks the first step toward full co- operation between the EU and Liaoning, and it will spur a number of projects that will be jointly launched by the two sides, government officials said.