Focus subject: Arhus Environment for Europe Ministerial Conference

• Evolution of the Environment for Europe Process (editorial)
• The Arhus Declaration and Conference Highlights
• Environmental Financing in CEECs and NIS
• SIEI Report on the Use of Economic Instruments in CEE
• The Project Preparation Committee Report to Arhus
• Energy Efficiency in CEE
  • The Energy Efficiency Initiative
  • Financing Energy Efficiency in CEE: Case Studies
• Pollution Abatement and Control Expenditures in CEE/NIS
• Environmental Financing Strategy in Lithuania
• The Polish EcoFund: Swapping Debt for the Environment
• Future Work Programs:
  • Task Force for the Implementation of the Environmental Action Program
  • Sofia Initiative on Economic Instruments
• SUPPLEMENTS
  • Excerpts from Arhus Declaration
  • Environmental Financing in CEE and NIS: Policy Recommendations
  • Current Economic Instruments for Environmental Policy in CEE
  • Pollution Abatement Control Expenditure in CEE

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About this newsletter:

This issue was drafted by Tatiana Kluvankova, environmental economics consultant, Slovakia, and contributing editors Jim McNicholas and JŸrg Klarer, SIEI Secretariat, REC. We would like to thank Mr. Patrick Francis, Environmental Finance Specialist at the EAP Task Force Secretariat at OECD for providing comments on the articles on "Environmental Financing in CEE/NIS", "PAC expenditures in CEE/NIS", "Environmental Financing Strategy in Lithuania" and "The Polish EcoFund". The newsletter is part of the Sofia Initiative on Economic Instruments (SIEI), an initiative set up by officials from Central and Eastern Europe and approved by the 1995 Sofia and 1998 Arhus Ministerial Conferences "Environment for Europe". The SIEI is chaired by the Vice-Minister of Environment of the Czech Republic. The REC is providing the Secretariat of the SIEI.

You can receive this newsletter by e-mail on a regular basis and free of charge (if you receive this issue via e-mail, you are already on the distribution list), or view it on the internet ( http://www.rec.org/REC/Programs/SofiaInitiatives). If you wish to receive the e-mail version, please notify: gbrnewsletter@rec.org. Please, send your comments, suggestions and ideas on/for this newsletter to the same e-mail address. Also, your contribution to the newsletter would be welcome: if you would like to submit an article on issues related to Green Budget Reform and relevant to CEE/NIS countries, please contact jklarer@rec.org.

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