Aug. 3, 1999 * Volume 2 Number 5
CONTENTS:
B A L K A N C R I S I S
UN team: War hasn't caused "major eco-catastrophe"
The head of a United Nations expert team said on July 27 there was no evidence that NATO bombing had caused any major ecological catastrophe in Yugoslavia, but there is a need for urgent action to deal with some of the damage, according to reports. Pekka Haavisto, a former Finnish environment minister and chairman of the United Nations' Balkan Task Force, said that much of the environmental damage his team did find were the result of poor environmental practices that have been used by industry for the past 20 years our more, according to Reuters. Although the Yugoslav environment needs to be cleaned up, Haavisto said, "I don't speak about a major eco-catastrophe," and there is no apparent radiation problem from depleted uranium bombs, according to Reuters. The overall findings of the UN team tend to confirm the original projections of a REC preliminary report on the environmental damage caused by the war. Haavisto was speaking to reporters at the end of his team's 10-day tour of sites in Serbia, including Kosovo. The 17-strong team, which included two experts from the REC, visited eight towns where NATO hit a wide range of targets -- including fuel refineries, fertiliser plants and petrochemical units -- in the air war from March 24 to June 12, according to Reuters and other sources. Contact: The Balkans Task Force has a web site at: http://www.grid.unep.ch:80/btf.
British scientist says worst effects of DU yet to come
A British scientist says NATO's use of depleted uranium ammunition in the war over Kosovo could cause as many as 10,000 deaths from cancer over time, according to a July 30 report from Alex Kirby of BBC Online Network. Despite a UN team's statement that it had found no elevated levels of radiation in the war zone, researcher Roger Coghill said Greek scientists had reported in June that radiation levels rose above normal whenever the wind blew from the direction of Kosovo, according to reports. Coghill said the maximum effect of the depleted uranium will be reached about six months after the war, and he thinks the first cancers -- probably leukaemias -- will start to show up about a year after that, according to the BBC report. Contact: Kirby's story can be seen on the web at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_408000/408122.stm.
Serbian minister blames bombing for unseasonable weather
Serbian Ecology Minister Branislav Blazic on July 29 blamed NATO's 11-week air bombardment of Yugoslavia for unseasonable spring and summer weather in the Balkan region, according to a report from Reuters. Blazic was quoted by Beta news agency as saying an unprecedented amount of rain had fallen in the region, and that military activities -- including the unusual amount of airplane fuel burned by NATO jets -- had brought about the rain by affecting the upper atmosphere, Reuters reported. Contact: Serbian Environment Ministry (381-11) 657-143; or Yugoslav Federal Hydrometeorological Institute, Slavko Maksimovic, director, tel: (381-11) 645-779; fax: (381-11) 646-369.
WSPA disaster relief team to help Kosovo's stray dogs
A disaster relief team from the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) was to arrive in Kosovo on Aug. 2 on a mission to help deal with thousands of stray dogs that are roaming city streets in the region, according to a press release distributed by e-mail. The team will link up with several veterinarians in the town of Prizren in an attempt to deal with the problem of thousands of stray dogs that are roaming the streets and forming packs scavenging for food, according to the release. Many of these dogs are sick and injured, and some army units have already started shooting them in an attempt to prevent them from becoming a problem and spreading disease, the release said. The WSPA-led team hopes to collect strays from the streets, treat and clean them in a temporary shelter and re-home as many dogs as possible in a program that they hope will become a model for other towns in Kosovo, the release said. Contact: Jonathan Owen, WSPA Press Office, tel: (44-171) 793-0540.
A R O U N D T H E R E G I O N
Landslides, floods claim lives in Romania and Hungary
At least 13 people were killed and 23 injured in a landslide caused by heavy rain and floods near a dam on the Raul Mare River in the Retezat mountains in western Romania, according to a July 13 report from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE). Romanian Radio reported on July 13 that one person drowned in Cluj County, the RFE report said. Reuters reported that at least six people were killed as the result of landslides caused by floods in Hungary. Three persons were buried in a wine cellar in Siklos, south of Budapest, and three drowned in Heves County, in northwestern Hungary, Reuters said. In Bulgaria, floods caused heavy damage in two villages near the town of Montana, north of Sofia, according to RFE. Contact: Romanian Ministry of Water, Forestry and Environmental Protection, tel: (40-1) 410-6394; fax: (40-1) 312-2599; or Dr. Judit Moser of the Hungarian environment ministry's press office, tel: (36-1) 201-2619.
Floods in Hungary cause $210 million in damage
Floods have caused damage costing more than Ft 50 billion ($210.5 million) in Hungary so far this year, government spokesman Gabor Borokai told a news conference on July 27, according to a report from Reuters. Borokai said the first set of floods, brought on by an early melting of a record amount of snow followed by heavy rains, caused damage of Ft 31.3 billion in the spring, Reuters reported. He said an additional Ft 20 billion in damage was caused by flooding this summer, which followed weeks of torrential rains that broke several decade-old records in certain regions of the country, Reuters reported. Contact: Dr. Judit Moser of the Hungarian environment ministry's press office, tel: (36-1) 201-2619.
EC seeks NGOs to join in dialogue on accession
The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) is organising a series of conferences to facilitate dialogue between environmental NGOs in the region and officials in the European Commission on the subject of accession. The REC is now conducting a search for the best NGOs to involve in the process. According to a statement from the REC, the project, sponsored by the EC's Directorate General XI, aims to encourage open discussions about EU accession between EC staff and representative environmental NGOs from the 11 accession countries (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia). NGOs from other CEE countries could also be involved and informed of the dialogue, the statement said. Project plans call for four conferences in the next two years. The first conference is to take place in Brussels in October. Anyone from an NGO who wants to participate -- or anyone who knows of an NGO that they feel should be involved in this dialogue -- is urged to contact the REC by sending an e-mail to acraciun@rec.org. For fastest processing, put the words "NGO-EC" in the subject line.
Environmentalists defend trees in Czech national park
Several dozen Czech environmental activists were staging an ongoing blockade of trees in the Sumava National Park to protect them against woodcutters, according to a July 28 report from Radio Prague. The environmentalists are ready to go on with the peaceful blockade for several months, the report said. Widespread felling of trees in the most strictly protected areas of the Sumava National Park started several days ago after approval from the environment ministry earlier this year, the radio reported. The ministry argued that the trees needed protection against the spread of bark-beetle, but a group of leading Czech experts have issued an appeal calling for a halt to the felling, claiming that such harsh intervention in the best preserved areas of forest is unnecessary, the report said. Contact: Czech Greenpeace, web: http://www.greenpeace.cz; or Czech Environment Minister Milos Kuzvart, tel: (420-2) 6712-2719 or (420-2) 6712-1111.
Albanian government looking to locally produced energy
Officials of the Ministry of Public Economy and Privatisation in Tirana, Albania, are considering hydro-electric plants as a way to produce power closer to the customers, the Albanian Daily said on July 5, according to a report from Central Europe Online. The ministry is looking for potential investors into eight proposed local hydro-power stations on the River Vjosa in southern Albania, where the energy potential has gone unrealised thus far, the report said. Most of Albania's electricity comes form hydro-power plants in the north of the country, on the Drini River, which has caused problems in distribution -- especially because southern and middle Albania are the greatest consumers of energy, the report said. Contact: Albanian Ministry of Information, Department of Communication with Media, tel: (355) 425-6269; e-mail: mininf@albnet.net.
Lithuanian oil terminal operation disrupted
Protesters from Latvia temporarily disrupted the initial operations of Lithuania's new Butinge Oil Terminal on July 21, according to reports. Four environmental protesters chained themselves to a buoy near the terminal until they were removed by the Lithuanian coast guard and were later deported, according to a report from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE). According to a widely circulated e-mail that was sent out July 21 and signed by demonstrators, the protest campaign against Butinge Oil Terminal is spearheaded by Friends of the Earth Latvia/VAK. The statement from the activists said in part: "The Butinge SPMB-type Oil Terminal is being constructed by the Lithuanian side just 1 km off the border with Latvia. All proceedings are done without consultations with Latvia, all regulations of this terminal and its presumable Oil Spill Contingency Plan, if any, is kept in secret." At opening ceremonies on July 22, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, a long-time environmental official in the U.S., stressed that Butinge "poses no threat to nature," RFE reported. Contact: Janis Ulme, VAK/FoE Latvia, e-mail: vak@latnet.lv or vakjanis@valmiera.lanet.lv; or Lithuanian environmental spokeswoman Natalija Gedvilaite, tel: (370-2) 723-251; e-mail: Leidybos.biuras@nt.gamta.lt.
Baltic to gain from Kaliningrad sewage upgrade
Pollution levels in the Baltic Sea are expected to fall "substantially" after the implementation of a plan, announced in early July, to improve sewage treatment and collection in the Russian territory of Kaliningrad, according to a July 13 report from ENDS Environment Daily. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is to invest EURO 16.5 million in the project, which will also lead to "significant" energy savings and improved drinking water quality in the region, ENDS Environment Daily reported. The remainder of the project's costs of EURO 63 million will be met by environment and development agencies from Baltic neighbours Sweden and Denmark and Nordic financial institutions, the report said. The Baltic has long suffered from heavy eutrophication pressures due to the large number of rivers flowing into the sea from catchments in former Communist states containing major cities such as St. Petersburg and Warsaw, according to the report. Contacts: EBRD, tel: (44-171) 338-610; web: http://www.ebrd.org. To subscribe to ENDS Environment Daily, e-mail: envdaily@ends.co.uk.
Bulgaria has lowest birth rate in Europe
Bulgaria's population is declining and the country now has the lowest birth rate in Europe, the Bulgarian National Statistics Institute (NSI) said on July 28, according to a report from Reuters. The nation's ageing population, which has been shrinking since 1990, decreased by 0.6 percent in 1998 to 8.23 million and is seen falling to 6.91 million in 2020, the report said. Last year, Bulgaria had a birth rate of 7.9 per 1,000, while its mortality rate was at 14.3 per 1,000 -- and the infant mortality rate was 14.4 per 1,000, said the report, which added that vascular and heart diseases were the cause of two-thirds of a total of 118,000 deaths in Bulgaria last year. "The population is getting older and last year every fourth Bulgarian was a pensioner," Yordan Kalchev, an expert at the NSI was quoted as telling a news conference. Contact: Bulgarian Ministry of Health, tel: (359-2) 8631; fax: (359-2) 80-031; or Zero Population Growth, tel: (1-202) 332-2200; fax: (1-202) 332-2302; e-mail: ZPG@igc.apc.org; web: http://www.zpg.org.
Hungarian power plant plans wind turbine
The Hungarian Bakony Power Plant Company is planning to set up an experimental wind turbine, the Hungarian daily Nepszabadsag reported on July 19. The turbine would be erected next to the traditional coal power plant in Inota, Zoltan Kovacs, strategic development manager of the company, told Nepszabadsag. Bakony Power Plant Company would decide after a two-year experimental period whether to invest in further turbines, the daily reported. The turbine would operate on the top of a 30 meter high tower and it could reach a maximum speed of 30 spins per minute. The cost of the turbine was HUF 60 million, and the company expected to have the costs cleared in 20 years, the daily reported. Contact: Dr. Judit Moser of the Hungarian environment ministry's press office, tel: (36-1) 201-2619
N U C L E A R
EU to screen region's mushrooms for radioactivity
The European Commission said on July 29 it would tighten long-standing checks on mushrooms imported from 23 countries over fears they are still contaminated with radiation as a result of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, according to Reuters. The EC singled out wild mushrooms as being particularly prone to contamination and said levels of radioactive radiocaesium had "hardly declined and may well have increased in the case of certain species" since 1986. European Union states would be legally obliged to carry out rigorous checks on mushrooms imported from outside the bloc and all products would have to be certified safe before they could be sold, the commission said in the EU's Official Journal, according to Reuters. Countries whose mushrooms would be subject to the new checks were listed as: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, FYR Macedonia, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey, the Ukraine and Yugoslavia. Contact: European Commission Directorate General for Environment, Timo Makela, tel: (32-2) 299-2300; fax (32-2) 299-0310.
Austrians speak against Temelin in Brussels
A delegation from Upper Austria has voiced objections to the construction of the nuclear power station in Temelin, South Bohemia, to the European Commission, according to a July 28 report from Radio Prague. The delegation proposed that the Czech Republic not be admitted to the EU as long as the nuclear power plant at Temelin stays in operation, the report said. However, the head of the EC negotiating team, Nikolaus van der Pas, said in reaction that the use of nuclear energy is not prohibited in the EU if a member state assures a high level reactor safety, according to Radio Prague. The Austrians also submitted four studies on Temelin to van der Pas, as well as a list of demands which included a ban of the activation and operation of any Soviet-made reactors in countries which apply for EU membership, the radio reported. Contact: Czech Environment Minister Milos Kuzvart, tel: (420-2) 6712-2719 or (420-2) 6712-1111; or Greenpeace Austria, tel: (43-1) 545-4580.
Czech cabinet votes against continued uranium mining
The Czech cabinet has rejected a proposal by the Trade and Industry Minister Miroslav Gregr to continue uranium mining, according to a July 22 report from Radio Prague. Gregr had proposed keeping open the country's last working mine and reopening a second mine until 2005, a move he says would have ensured a guaranteed source of fuel for the country's two nuclear power stations and saved several thousand jobs, according to the report. The government's decision was welcomed by Environment Minister Milos Kuzvart, who said there were other employment opportunities for miners who would lose their jobs in the two regions concerned, and estimated that uranium mining had cost the country up to one hundred billion crowns in damage to the environment, the report said. Contact: Czech Environment Minister Milos Kuzvart, tel: (420-2) 6712-2719 or (420-2) 6712-1111.
Another delay in spent fuel transport from Bulgaria to Russia
The Parliament of Moldova on July 8 moved to postpone until October 1999 a vote on ratification of the joint agreement on nuclear spent fuel transport between Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova, according to a press release from environmental activists. Moldova's participation in this agreement is essential for Bulgaria to be able to ship spent nuclear fuel by rail to Russia for storage and reprocessing, which also requires passage through Romania and Ukraine, the press release said. Nine months ago, all transfers of nuclear waste from the Kozloduy reactors to Russia were suspended because Moldova's parliament would not ratify the agreement. The plenary of the parliament on the July 8 again delayed the Bulgarian nuclear industry from moving forward with these plans, the release said. Meanwhile, according to the release, environmental activists were working to permanently prevent the transport agreement. Contact: Antinuclear campaign of Socio-Ecological Union in Russia, Vladimir Slivyak, tel: (7-095) 776-6546; or Polina Kireva of Ecodefense in Sofia, tel: (359) 265-8216; or Bulgarian Atomic Energy Committee, tel: (359-2) 720-217.
Western, Russian firms to upgrade Bulgarian nuclear plant
A consortium of three companies on July 8 signed in Sofia a $300 million contract for the modernisation of nuclear units 5 and 6 at the Kozloduy power station in Bulgaria, Reuters and the Associated Press said, according to a report carried by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Bulgarian Energy Committee Chairman Ivan Shilyashki said that half of the financing for the modernisation will come from the EU's Euratome and Bulgaria will cover the rest with the help of loans from the countries that are participating in the consortium, the report said. German's Siemens AG, France's Framatome, and Russia's Atomenergoexport are scheduled to begin the modernization program next summer and to complete it in 2005, the report said. The modernisation of the two 1,000-megawatt units will help Bulgaria decommission its four older 440-megawatt reactors at Kozloduy, which the EU considers to be unsafe. Contact: Bulgarian Atomic Energy Committee, tel: (359-2) 720-217.
E U A C C E S S I O N
Talks on enlargement and environment to begin next year
Political negotiations to decide whether Central and Eastern European countries will be allowed to join the EU without meeting all its environmental standards will begin next year, acting environment commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard said this weekend, according to a report from ENDS Environment Daily. The announcement that the talks will start under the Portuguese presidency of the EU will disappoint countries which had hoped to begin the process this year under the auspices of the Finnish presidency, perceived as more sympathetic to an earlier enlargement of the union, the report said. A crucial question is whether the EU will allow countries "transition periods," because -- though all hope to be members of the union within four years -- several candidate countries have admitted that compliance with legislation in these areas may require periods of up to a decade after joining, the report said. Contact: Finnish Presidency of the EU, tel: (358) 205-1999; web: http://presidency.finland.fi. To subscribe to ENDS Environment Daily, e-mail: envdaily@ends.co.uk.
Poles may get EURO 200 million from EU for environment
Poland said on July 26 it could get up to EURO 200 million ($213.9 million) a year until 2007 from the European Union to clean up its environment, according to a report from Reuters. The money would go mainly on improving drinking water and sewage treatment and on limiting air pollution -- and would be granted under the IPSA programme for aspiring EU members -- Environment Minister Jan Szyszko told reporters, according to Reuters. The World Bank has said Poland must invest some $30-35 billion within the next decade to meet strict pollution standards of the EU, which Poland wants to join in 2003. Contact: Polish Environment Minister Jan Szyszko, tel: (48-22) 253-355 or (48-22) 251-111.
J O U R N A L I S M N E W S
Online environmental magazine seeks submissions
An online environmental magazine called "Elements" has announced that it is currently soliciting submissions for a new issue entitled "Living the Green Life," which will focus on ways that people reduce their environmental impact on the earth. Anyone interested in writing an article about environmentally friendly lifestyles, or on ways that particular organisations have become more environmentally, friendly is urged to contact the magazine. Articles should be 500-1000 words long and written for the general public. Contact New Brunswick Environmental Network, tel: (506) 433-6101; fax: (506) 433-6111; e-mail: nben@nbnet.nb.ca; web: http://www.web.net/~nben and http://elements.nb.ca.
Web site covers information society and CEE environment
A new web page outlines developments in "Information Society Technologies and the Environment in Central and Eastern Europe." According to an announcement about the web page, it offers information about the European Commission's Information Society Technologies Programme, as well as a good practice guide containing 16 case studies about the application of information society technologies for the environment. See the site at: http://www.rec.org/ist.
W H O W E A R E
About Green Horizon
Green Horizon is a free newsletter designed to help journalists stay ahead of environmental news in Central and Eastern Europe. Twice a month, we'll offer tips on upcoming stories to watch for, as well as information and ideas to help you develop in-depth pieces about the region's environment. Green Horizon is produced by the Media Information Service (MIS) of the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe. The goal of the MIS is to assist the media in covering environmental issues. It is funded by the European Commission's DG-XI and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
For a free subscription, research assistance or to find a source: Send e-mail to: GreenHorizon@rec.org, or call Tom Popper at (36-26) 504-000, fax (36-26) 311-294.
Funded by European Commission's DG-XI and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
