FOCUS ON SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE

SKOPJE LAWYERS GIVE FREE AID IN OBTAINING ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION 
Lawyers will give free legal assistance to journalists or any citizens seeking access to environmental information and environmental justice at a new Legal Center on the Environment in Skopje, according to a report from the Macedonia Information Agency. The new service was founded by the Journalist Legal Environment Center (NPEC) "Erina," which is already working on a law on environmental information for Macedonia, the report said. The new Legal Center on Environment "is also one of the mechanisms for implementing of the Aarhus Convention in Macedonia," Marijana Ivanova, president of the NPEC, was quoted as saying. The Aarhus convention is an international agreement designed to ensure better public participation in environmental matters. 

Contact: Marijana Ivanova, -mail: kortomarijana@hotmail.com.

FACTORY IN VELES, MACEDONIA, BLAMED FOR DEATH OF 3 TONS OF FISH 
A Macedonian government environmental inspector filed court charges on Feb. 13 claiming that the Kiro Kucuk factory in Veles caused serious pollution in the Topolka River, according to a report from the Macedonia Information Agency (MIA). The inspector has evidence indicating that the factory released eight tons of lime into the river, but the factory has denied any wrongdoing, MIA said. A local fisherman's association claimed that the pollution from the Kiro Kucuk factory killed three tons of fish. Veles, which is home to many factories and was once a hub for heavy industry, is one of the most polluted locations in South Eastern Europe. 

Contact: Macedonian Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, tel: (389-2) 366 930; e-mail: infoeko@moe.gov.mk; web: http://www.moe.gov.mk/ang/start.htm.

 
EU AND ACCESSION NEWS 

EU GIVES EUR 1.1B FOR ENVIRONMENT AND TRANSPORT PROJECTS IN CEE 
Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia will share in EUR 1.1 billion in European Union funding for 94 different projects in the environment and transport sectors, according to a Feb. 14 European Commission press release. The funding comes from the EU's Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-accession (ISPA), which pays for environment and transport projects in EU candidate countries. The total cost of the projects being funded is EUR 2.3 billion, and co-financing is coming from the beneficiary states and international financing institutions, the press release said. 

According to the press release, examples of environmental projects to be financed included: EUR 12.87 million for modernisation of five wastewater treatment plants and improvement of the municipal sewage collection system in Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic, along with modernisation of the city's main water treatment plant and drinking water network. EUR 8.29 million for the closure of the Paaskula landfill near Tallinn in Estonia, a project that involves closing and covering of the landfill with a surface area of 26 hectares, the collection and use of methane gas from the landfill, the collection and treatment of polluted leachate and the restoration of the polluted neighbourhood. EUR 72 million for the modernisation of sewerage and wastewater treatment systems in Constanta, Romania, as part of an effort to protect the Black Sea and its coastal areas while making it possible to develop tourism facilities in the area.

ACTIVISTS URGE EIB TO THINK GREEN WHEN GIVING OUT CASH
Friends of the Earth and the Bankwatch Network urged the European Investment Bank to ensure that the money it gives away goes to projects that meet European Union environmental standards, according to the Feb. 11 edition of the European Commission's "Enlargement Weekly" newsletter. Friends of the Earth has produced a series of case studies alleging that the bank has been deficient in ensuring environmental standards are met in several projects in the candidate countries, including the Bratislava Bridge in Slovakia and highway construction in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, the newsletter said. Bankwatch noted that the EUR 14 billion the bank has lent to candidate countries so far has been spent on infrastructure, energy and transport projects, "which have significant long-term impacts on the environment," the newsletter said. Bankwatch officials alleged that environmental impact assessments are not always performed on these projects. 

Contact: Petko Kovachev, CEE Bankwatch network (Bulgaria), tel: (359-2) 920-1341 or (359-88) 420-453; e-mail: ceie@iterra.net.

 
NUCLEAR ROUNDUP

TEMELIN SHUTS DOWN FOR A MONTH OF REPAIRS
The Czech Republic's controversial Temelin nuclear power plant will close down for a month for "technical revision" after faulty valves apparently caused a malfunction that prompted the plant's safety systems to shut the reactor down in early February, according to a report from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE). Testing resumed Feb. 17, and was to continue for about five days before the plant shut down for the repairs, the report said. Dana Drabova, who heads the Czech Office for Nuclear Safety, reportedly told the daily "Lidove noviny" on Feb. 14 that financial sanctions and management changes might be imposed on the state-owned utility CEZ, which operates Temelin, if another emergency shutdown occurs. 

The plant is opposed by many in Austria, and on Feb. 12, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said that questions about Temelin must be resolved before the country joins the European Union, according to RFE. But Schuessel, who has signed agreements with Czech leaders about the plant, said he was confident that the problems would be taken care of, RFE reported. Activists in Austria, where anti-nuclear sentiment is strong, fought to prevent the construction of the plant, which was begun several years ago and then delayed. The Czech government has said that, with upgrades, the Temelin plant is safe, and they maintain that their country needs the energy source. 

Contact: Upper Austrian Parliament Chairman Josef Puehringer, e-mail: LH.Puehringer@ooe.gv.at; or 

Karel Bohm, chairman, Czech State Office for Nuclear Safety, tel: (420-2) 2422-3139; fax: (420-2) 2162-704; e-mail: karel.bohm@sujb.cz; or 

Czech Environment Minister Milos Kuzvart, tel: (420-2) 6712-2719 or (420-2) 6712-1111; or Greenpeace Austria, tel: (43-1) 545-4580.

LITHUANIA WONDERING WHERE TO STORE NUCLEAR WASTE
Lithuania needs to find a permanent storage site for the spent nuclear fuel from the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant once the plant it is closed down, Dainius Janenas, the director of Lithuania's recently formed Radioactive Waste Regulation Agency, told a press conference in Vilnius on Feb. 12, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE). Janenas said the plant produces about 1,100 cubic meters of solid waste and 1,000 cubic meters of liquid nuclear waste each year, and that there are now about 60 intermediate containers, which can store nuclear waste for up to 50 years, at the site of the plant, RFE reported. 

Once the plant is closed down completely, there would be the need for about 700 containers that would cost about EUR 70-90 million, RFE said. An alternative plan, to bury the waste near Kaunas, would cost an estimated EUR 100-250 million, according to RFE. Lithuania, one of the most nuclear dependent countries in the world, has agreed with European Union negotiators to close the first of its two reactors at the Ignalia nuclear power station by 2005. The government will make a decision on the second reactor in 2004, but the EU has said it expects it to be shut down by 2009. 

Contact: Lithuanian environmental spokeswoman Natalija Gedvilaite, tel: (370-2) 723- 25; e-mail: Leidybos.biuras@nt.gamta.lt.

INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS INSPECTING KOZLODUY SECURITY
International Agency for Atomic Energy experts from the United States, Canada, France and the U.K. began an inspection of Bulgaria's Kozloduy power plant on Feb. 18, to see whether the recommendations their agency made in 1996 were being followed, according to a report from Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). Meanwhile, a so-called nuclear lobby in Bulgaria is petitioning the government to keep all six reactors at the plant running beyond year 's end, despite an agreement with the European Union to close two reactors by the end of 2002, the report said. In the same agreement, Bulgaria also promised to try to close two more reactors by 2006, though there has bee n no final decision on that closure. The pro-nuclear advocates say that Bulgaria can make good money by selling nuclear energy to its neighbours, and that the closure of the reactors would mean a rise in electricity price s, DPA reported. 

Contact: Bulgarian Atomic Energy Committee, tel: (359-2) 720-217; or

Bulgarian Environment Minister Dr. Evdokia Maneva, tel: (359-2) 882-577; web: http://www.moew.government.bg.

 
ELSEWHERE AROUND THE CEE REGION

REPORT FINDS TOO MANY NUTRIENTS REMAIN IN THE BALTIC 
A new report finds that, even though the "transitional countries" along the Baltic Sea have done a good job of reducing their nutrient output, none of the countries in the region have achieved the 50 percent reduction envisioned in 1988 and, as a result, the Baltic Sea is still burdened by an overly high level of nutrients, according to a Feb. 8 press release. The technical capacity to reduce emissions of nutrients, which include nitrogen and phosphorous and are generated by agricultural and industrial activities, is apparently available.

According to the report, municipalities and industries in the nine Baltic Sea countries should be technically capable of reaching the 50 percent reduction target for phosphorus and nitrogen emissions from point sources by 2005. The reduction target was set in 1988 at a conference of environment ministers. "The intensive use of fertiliser s over a long period has widely saturated soils with phosphorus, and progress in reducing phosphorus loads will only be visible after a long time lag," the press release said. 

Contact: Ulrike Hassink, information secretary, Helsinki Commission, tel: (358-9) 6220 2235.

STUDY FINDS SPEEDING BOATS ERODE SEA COAST 
A study currently underway by the Estonian Ministry of the Environment is confirming that ships and speed boats in Tallinn Bay leave environmental destruction and angry fishermen in their wake, according to a report on the ministry's web site. Once the study is complete, it is likely to lead for recommendations for speed limits in the Bay, the report said. The study has found so far that backwash from large ships, and especially high speed traffic, can cause unnatural erosion, as well as troubling slower moving boats. "The structure of waves generated by high speed crafts is similar to that of solitons - solitary waves that have a specific structure and can spread for many kilometres with a practically unchanged shape and height, and whose impact on the coastal slope and bottom sediments is much stronger than that of equally high natural waves," the web report said. 

Contact: Estonian Ministry of the Environment, tel: (372-6) 262-800; web: http://www.envir.ee/eng/index.html.

 
NEWS FOR JOURNALISTS

PUBLISHER SEEKS ARTICLES ABOUT GREEN ENTREPRENEURS
Greenleaf Publishing has circulated an e-mail calling for contributions to a special edition of "Greener Management International" on the role entrepreneurs have to play in the adoption of more sustainable business practi ces. Specifically, the announcement said, the articles would look at entrepreneurs who are finding opportunities in the environment field. According to the e-mail, "The aim is to produce an issue of GMI that will help pol icy-makers better understand and encourage this group, which will motivate existing firms and nascent entrepreneurs, and which will provide practical solutions that will allow a greater uptake of eco-friendly business pra ctices in a competitive context." Those who are interested in writing for the edition can submit an abstract of approximately 300 words before May 12. 

For further information contact: Dr Michael Schaper, schaperm@cbs.curtin.edu.au, or