|
|
| The Role of the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe after 2004 Services |
| 4. Future relevance of services
of the REC in different groups of countries
Promotion of environmental issues and priorities in planning and operations of EU Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund: EU regional policy has earmarked approximately EUR 25 billion for projects and programmes in the new member states until the end of 2006. These funds will be allocated according to national development plans, which specify the priority development objectives that the funds can address. Since 1999, the REC has been working with several candidate countries not only to promote environmental development priorities, but also to integrate environmental concerns into all aspects of the programming, through the use of strategic environmental assessment (SEA). The effectiveness of the plans and programmes assisted by EU regional policy instruments are regularly evaluated, including environmental assessment. The REC will continue to employ its expertise in this area to ensure that the environment remains a priority in regional development. At the same time, the REC will assist local authorities and other final beneficiaries, including the local business communities, in preparing high-quality projects and programmes to improve the absorption rate of the available funding in the new member states. Following the activities related to the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund, the REC will also develop close cooperation with the Visegrad 4 countries on a subregional level. This type of cooperation will be developed in other areas of REC operations in the new EU member states, as described below. Post-accession support on local and regional levels: The main burden of implementing the acquis communautaire in the new member states will be carried by local and regional authorities and businesses. They have received limited attention and support for capacity-building so far and the deficiencies of these authorities are widely recognised. While the economically viable businesses in most of these countries have already gone a long way towards becoming more resource efficient, the great majority of companies, especially the very large number of micro, small and medium size enterprises still lack the expertise and financial incentives to adapt sound environmental management practices. The REC has been working with various networks of local authorities, like The Sustainable Cities Campaign, and has been supporting the development of local environmental action plans to set cost-effective priorities for action at the local level. The demand for services on these levels will surely grow significantly after accession, since the great majority of EC funds and nationally planned developments are going to be distributed and managed locally. The REC country offices in particular will be in a good position to respond to these diverse needs. Country-specific demands require the degree of accuracy that the local experience of REC country offices is able to provide. Good governance and public participation, civil society: Legislation concerning access to information, public participation and access to justice is still being developed even at the EU level. It must then be transposed and implemented in the region, requiring significant efforts on behalf of authorities at all levels and on behalf of enterprises, many of which lack an appreciation for involving local communities in the planning and operational activities that will affect the quality of life of those communities. Because of the attention given to environmental governance and democracy in the transition process, this is an area where good practices are emerging in CEE and can be contributed to the wider EU policy debate in the future. The Baia Mare incident has raised new governance issues, such as investment codes. The REC will continue to be a centre of expertise and excellence on this topic for all of Europe. Support initiatives to implement sustainable development: On September 4, 2002 in Johannesburg, the WSSD declared the commitment of governments to implement the Rio principles in the coming decades. As a globally recognised actor, the REC can facilitate the implementation of sustainable development in the CEE region through its work supporting good governance and the development of sustainable societies and economies. Following the WSSD, the implementation of the Sustainable Development Strategy of the European Union (adopted in 2001) was highlighted by the EC as the guideline for the future of the EU. The implementation of this strategy — also meaning, in the wider framework, the implementation of Agenda 21 — will partly depend on legislative and budgetary decision-making, but an important part will have to be implemented through “soft” initiatives including education, Local Agenda 21, the development of Type 2 (cross-sectoral, interdisciplinary and/or international) partnerships, in cooperation with NGOs, the business sector and local and regional authorities. In this context, the REC’s role as the facilitator of networking, stakeholder dialogue and partnership can be fully exploited. Support to cooperation on transboundary issues: The environment is a suitable area for international cooperation and a source of understanding, contacts and communication. Solving environmental problems will continue to require trans-boundary cooperation also within the enlarged EU. For this purpose, initiatives such as the Danube and Black Sea Task Force, and the Baltic Sea Commission have been established. They are particularly relevant for the implementation of the framework Water Directive. The REC participates in the work of these and other initiatives in the Carpathians and on the Sava River. The REC can provide a neutral platform for cooperation among countries and among various stakeholders across borders. For example, the REC served as the secretariat of the Sava River Basin Framework Agreement. Policy think-tank on specific issues, information and resource centre: The number and capacity of organisations dealing with the environment and sustainable development in Europe is relatively limited compared to the role the EU has been playing in driving the global policy agenda in recent years. The REC is already part of global networks of environmental think-tanks and has developed considerable expertise in fields such as access to information, public participation, access to justice, strategic environmental assessment, pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs), environmental management for enterprises, biodiversity and climate change. In cooperation with the Commission and other institutions — such as the EEA in Copenhagen and the Joint Research Centers in Ispra, Italy and Seville, Spain — the REC can provide useful input into specific new policy, methodology and procedure initiatives in the EU. In the candidate countries that will not enter the EU in 2004, efforts to transpose and implement the acquis communautaire will continue. In these countries the capacity of government administrations needs to be strengthened, as does the functioning of the entire environmental sector: local authorities, NGOs and the business community. The set of activities supporting accession efforts has been well developed in recent years at the REC and these countries will benefit significantly from the experiences of new member states. The largest and most complex candidate country will remain Turkey, where the REC has been developing a work programme for the past two years. Turkey has specific needs that must be addressed along the EU accession process, ranging from raising the environmental awareness of the population, through the environmental performance of the business community, to the development of civil society and capacity-building of the government administration. In South Eastern Europe, the stabilisation and association agreements with the EU will provide a strong impetus for environmental harmonisation. The needs, which will be similar to the candidate countries some years ago, will continue to be served through the Regional Environmental Reconstruction Programme. An important additional dimension of environmental cooperation in the Balkans is confidence-building and security through the achievement of common environmental objectives. The work in these countries will also strongly benefit from the exchange of experience and the emerging donor role of the new EU member states. 4.4 Global processes and other regions In the 12 years of its work, the REC has proven to be a successful tool of international environmental cooperation operating at a more practical level than most classical international organisations. At the same time, it is operating freely and independently of the sometimes challenging domestic circumstances in specific countries. Because of this success in the REC’s current region, sister RECs have been established in the EECCA and the potential has arisen to use this model in other regions, including Southern and North Africa. With the focus of international cooperation moving to implementation and governance after Johannesburg, the REC can provide useful experience and expertise to the global community by sharing its transition successes in CEE with other regions. In the pan-European context, transition is coming to a close with EU enlargement, and new foundations for environmental cooperation across the continent will be laid at the Environment for Europe ministerial conference in Kiev in 2003. The CEE region will be served within the framework of moving towards EU membership, and the focus will shift to SEE and the EECCA. Within the EECCA framework there will be a strong demand for the transfer of experience from CEE countries. The REC can be a resource for expertise when the new member states assume greater responsibilities as donors. With the end of transition, global, regional and subregional conventions will play an important role in setting and achieving common policy objectives on the European continent. But their development and implementation present an important challenge for countries with insufficient administrative and other capacities. There will be a growing need for capacity-building related to various conventions and for more or less formal mechanisms for monitoring their implementation. The REC has been playing an active role in the framework of the Aarhus Convention, the Accidents Convention, the Sava River Framework Agreement and others. |
|
Contents of this page: Relevance of services to Global processes and other regions
|
    
|
|||
|
