A C H I E V E M E N T S
Initiatives
Each government of Central and Eastern Europe has the difficult task of constructing policies that result in a strong economy and a healthy environment. These policies are only legitimate, however, if they win the approval of citizens. The Regional Environmental Center understands that such policies will emerge only if economists, environmentalists, researchers, legislators, and citizen groups share information and experience, and the REC Initiatives Team is dedicated to facilitating this exchange. It focuses on cooperation not only across Central and Eastern Europe, but also between Central and Eastern Europe and the West. Through reports, surveys, manuals, and workshops the Initiatives Team combines Regional expertise from government, non-government organizations, and academia to analyze crucial environmental problems from a Regional perspective and to develop Regional solutions to them. The REC is careful to ensure that its work fits into the broader picture. As Janos Zlinszky, Initiatives Team Leader says, "All of the REC's work in 1994 fits into the Lucerne-Sofia channel."
KAREN KRCHNAK
of the Washington-based Environmental Law Institute speaking at a REC workshop in Romania.
Strategic Environmental Issues
In 1994 the REC released Strategic Environmental Issues in Central and Eastern Europe, a ground-breaking survey of more than 150 experts from ten countries. Through this report the REC demonstrated that it was positioned to bring together Regional knowledge and skill into a report that authoritatively maps Central and Eastern Europe's environmental problems. To design, research, and write both the Regional report and the individual country reports, the REC assembled an international team of experts from government, non-government organizations, and academia. The resulting survey prioritized environmental problems in Central and Eastern Europe, and concluded that many of those problems could most effectively be solved if people from throughout the Region cooperated by sharing their talents and experience.
When the REC's General Assembly met for its annual meeting in June 1994, an independent panel of experts discussed the report's implications. The General Assembly later endorsed its findings and recommendations and called for its wider distribution, thereby confirming the REC's valuable contribution to helping policy makers understand environmental issues in the Region. Several large international organizations, including the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the Organization for Cooperation and Development, and the European Union's PHARE Program, have subsequently used this report to develop their own programs.
PARTICIPANTS
listen attentively during a workshop on public participation.
Public Participation Program
The Regional Environmental Center's Public Participation Program is the Initiatives Team's effort to combine Regional know-how to help citizens actively participate in environmental decisionmaking. The REC's Manual on Public Participation in Environmental Decisionmaking capped two years of work, and was published in eleven editions. Both the English edition and the national-language editions include chapters on the theory of public participation as an instrument of environment protection, on the practice of how to participate, and an overview chapter on public participation in the Region. Whereas the English-language edition then includes overviews of the legal provisions for participation in ten countries, each national-language edition gives a detailed picture of the legal provisions for participation in that country. To create these manuals, the REC again brought together experts from both government and non-government organizations. Besides cooperation among Central and Eastern Europeans, the REC built bridges from East to West; Western experts helped write some of the chapters of the Manual, and the Dutch ministry of environment helped finance workshops on public participation in ten countries. To further promote cooperation across sectors, about 300 individuals from national and local government, non-government organizations, business, research institutes, and media were invited to ten workshops to understand the obstacles and possibilities for public participation in their respective countries.
ZOLTAN HAJDU (Romania)
consults Magdolna Toth Nagy, coordinator of the Public Participation program.
Comparative Studies
The Initiatives Team began two series of comparative studies in 1994. These studies facilitate the exchange of experience and establish a baseline on the state of the environment in the Region. The first two reports in the second series, namely Use of Economic Instruments in Environmental Policy and National Environmental Protection Funds, were released in 1994 and were presented at important environmental conferences organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. These presentations help to assert the Regional Environmental Center's position in the debate on environmental policy in Central and Eastern Europe.
Environmental Management Training Center Network
The Regional Environmental Center became responsible for creating and coordinating a network of Environmental Management Training Centers in Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, and Ukraine. In fact, it helped establish the Hungarian EMTC in August 1994. These centers use training programs developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to train professionals in environmental management. It is part of the EMTC's strategy to bring together people from several sectors, including business, local and national government, non-government organizations, and academia in order to promote integrated approaches to environmental management.
REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CENTER * ANNUAL REPORT 1994