REC * PROGRAMS * TELEMATICS * ENWAP
Mr. N. Hodges and Mr. W. Boch (chairpersons) opened the meeting with a revised agenda. Minutes of the previous meeting were approved without modification.
Mr. B.Griepink, DG1A, presented a general introduction to the PHARE Programme stressing the PHARE activities in the domain of environmental issues. PHARE (Poland & Hungary Assistance for Economic Restructuring) Programme was approved by the EU Council in 1989 to assist Poland and Hungary in their transition economies.
Over the last six years, the PHARE Programme has remained a conspicuous grant programme supporting 10 ÔpartnershipÕ countries in Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Rumania, Slovenia). The target issues of the PHARE Programme were decided during the Ôpre-accessionÕ partnership. By indicating the major gaps between the East and West economic/legislative/institutional systems, the CEE countries, together with those of the EU, presented a work programme, defining priorities and measurements which should help to decrease the most serious gaps. In general, measurements such as know-how exchange (in providing policy advice, advisory support, training and studies; developing the legal and regulatory frame; establishing framework programmes and pilot projects) and investment support (for studies, capital grants guarantees, credit lines and general investment in infrastructure development) have been the ones most addressed.
The "accession" pre-requisite will involve a series of political negotiations, where a more rigid and detailed examination will be made of the results achieved during the transitional period for the selected countries. Most of the PHARE Programmes are national, agreed bi-laterally with each partner country and absorbing 75% of the total PHARE yearly budget for the 10 partnership countries (1 billion ECU ).
Since 1994, the list of operational Programmes supported in the environment sector shows that, beside financing national programmes, special attention is given to cross-border cooperation and multi-country initiatives, clustering several countries on common important environmental issues such as air and water quality monitoring and improvement: i.e. the Black Triangle air quality monitoring programme, the Danube and the Elbe water pollution monitoring and management programme.
However, the total financial support of PHARE is rather small compared to the urgent needs of the partnership countries on environmental issues. The infrastructural investments target the abatement of the main point sources of pollution - large combustion plants, large waste sewage complexes - which characterise the type of pollution in the CEE countries. The maintenance and further investments in infrastructure should be self-supported by the country itself, despite the heavy economic burden involved. In the PHARE environment sector, a few projects have also been devoted to monitoring the attitudes of population in CEE countries: i.e. the awareness of populations to environmental issues.
George Strongylis, DGXI, presented the issue of Environmental Cooperation with Eastern and Central Europe on air and water pollution. The implications of the enlargement of the European Union for six (accession countries) of the ten countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) will significantly determine most of the ten countries' policy making for the next five to fifteen years. The process of pre accession/accession will be very cost-intensive, where the environmental sector is rather expensive with 120-150 billion ECU estimated investments. Such investments should be allocated for 40% to the combustion plants, for 40% to water sewage treatment plants and 20% to solid and hazardous waste.
The key-challenges of pre-accession countries indicate that the main efforts should be directed in the construction of Institutional buildings, to pursue a nuclear safety policy, in abating nitrogen content in water, to reduce point source pollution and to increase energy efficiency.
The European Commission document entitled Agenda 2000 is intended to strengthen the pre-accession strategy - including the pre-accession strategy for the environment - for all ten associated countries of CEE. The Commission has also prepared a document entitled ÒGuide on Approximation to the European Union Environmental Legislation,Ó advocating the use of a simple, practical tool to help achieve formal compliance with existing EU legislation. Using this tool, associated countries can better identify precise gaps between EU environmental legislation and their own and set up a programme for how and when these gaps will be filled with new or amended legislation.
The EU's Environmental legislation (acquis) includes ca. 300 legal acts (from Directives, Regulations and Decisions) structured in 9 sectors of legislation : horizontal legislation, air quality management, waste management, water quality management, nature protection, industrial pollution control and risk management, chemicals and genetically modified organisms, noise from vehicles and machinery, nuclear safety and radiation protection. Such an Environmental acquis (available as a database through CELEX at http:://europa.eu.int/) should be integrated in a step by step mechanism in the accession process for the CEE countries.
Two objectives set out in Agenda 2000 are the establishment of an implementation database and progress monitoring on approximation.
Part of Agenda 2000 included a report on the progress made by the associated countries. It concluded that six of them - the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Cyprus - had made sufficient progress in their transition to democratic civil societies and market economies, which will lead to formal accession negotiations from the beginning of early 1998. The possible view to accession is foreseen for early 2002 if accession pre-requisites will be fulfilled. The five accession countries are undergoing serious institutional, economic and political restructuring of their own nation.
Mr. J. Burgard, DFKI, presented an overview of the TEMSIS-TAP-ENVIRONEMNT project, stressing how the system has been tailored toward user requirements and which constraints/problems the project has to faced. The TEMSIS project addresses environmental information to local authorities via Administration Info-Kiosk (A-kiosks), supporting communication and telecooperation between the local and regional public bodies, environmental authorities and institutions. The project addresses environmental information also to the general public via active public info-kiosks (P-kiosks). It will, among other things, inform people of the daily change of air and water quality in their local environment. Environmental information is disseminated at focal points such as city halls, or private homes via access to the Internet.
The main problems which TEMSIS had to cope with were:
The BDQA has been developed to serve as an open database facility. Its characteristics are:
The database design took place at the beginning of November with the aim of disseminating the information and content of the ENWAP activity to the broad public. In particular, the ENWAP database established includes information on;
In addition, a letter in Slovak language with a questionnaire has been prepared to inform potential TAP-EN users (important environmental organisations i.e. Ministry, agencies, research institutions) in Slovakia of the ENWAP activity and of the ENWAP Home Page address.
Mrs P. Mollet showed the results of a small POLIS survey addressing decisionmakers of cities and regions in the CEE countries on environmental priority needs and performed in November 1997. Of the 24 replies, 10 are based in Romania and 5 in Poland, other countries include Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Moldova, the Former Yugoslavia, Republic of Macedonia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Two thirds of the responses came from cities, one third are regional authorities The survey asked for information on general policy priorities, the status and ability to solve transport and environment related problems, main areas of future co-operation with the EU and practical issues of experience exchange. The highest concern /priority of decisionmakers in the CEEC/NIS are in the economic and social issues, namely unemployment. For other priorities, almost all mentioned environment (87%) and transport (73%) as areas of major concern. In the environment area, the provision of drinking water and sewage and waste (together 39%) are most acute. The willingness to cooperate with Western countries is intensely high. The area of cooperation in environmental issues showed that decision support and monitoring systems for water and air, as well as management systems for industrial accidents and for the treatment of industrial and hazardous waste/site remediation are more or less considered of equal importance.
Mrs. S. Azzali reported on ENWAP experts activity. Different interpretations of Best Practice descriptions have been indicated by different experts. However, a common structure should be adopted for the description of Best Practices when applying TAP-EN projects and other related projects in other contexts. POLIS presented a format which could be adapted to the ENWAP Best Practice exercise, and Mr. Pinter proposed a schema for a standard description of Best Practice. The different lists of other potential users (network contacts of each expert) to be involved in the description of Best Practices show that the specific user segments include mostly public authorities, operational sector and research institutes.
The discussion on the Best Practice form led to the conclusion that the POLIS format will be adopted and modified for the ENWAP purpose. The modified format will be then used for case studies. As case-studies, the projects EMMA, EFFECT, TEMSIS and Danube AEWS have been chosen and their description will be adapted to the consolidated structure of the format. The description of good practice for the projects EMMA, EFFECT, TEMSIS and Danube AEWS will address specific user segments such as decisionmakers in public administrations and operators.
A proposed Agenda for the next Expert Group 2-day meeting at REC in Szentendre, Hungary, was distributed. The main idea is to hold a seminar on the first day inviting speakers and other CEE experts for discussing the Best Practice exercise. The second day will see the participation of the ENWAP Expert Group discussing the results of Day 1 and to discuss with the DETERMINE partners the contents and organisation of the dissemination event to be held in May-June 1998.
The list below of actions and associated deadlines was established and agreed.
| Actions | Who | When |
|---|---|---|
| Copies of all presentations of the meeting to be made available in electronic format by authors for enwap@list.arttic.com | Azzali, Anglade | 15 December |
| Provide feedback to the format structure proposed by POLIS to describe Best Practice for some case-studies to Azzali | All experts but in particular Mollet, Hodges, Pinter, McGrogan, Bohler, Anglade, Burgard | 16 December |
| Develop a harmonized structure for Best Practice description | Azzali and Mollet | 18 December |
| Provide feedback to the proposed agenda of the 5th EWAP meeting in Szentendre, Hungary to Azzali | All experts | 16 December |
| Provide Best Practice case studies (by filling the questionnaire) to Azzali | Mollet for POLIS, Hodges for EMMA and EFFECT, Burgard for TEMSIS, Pinter for Danube AEWS, McGrogan for Eurocity, Anglade for BDQA, Ribeiro da Costa for SNIRH, Ritter for Envirocity, Korvits for Tallinnet/Baltnet, Kobus for air quality Black Triangle, Stancikova for DANIS, Roussev for REC activity and related projects, Lyklema for TNO related projects. | 23 January, 1998 |
Discussion
10.45 Coffee Break
11.00 TEMSIS User requirements,
Dr. J. Burgard, project coordinator of TEMSIS
12.30 ------------------- LUNCH ------------------
13.30 Requirements and priorities identified in telematics applications for air pollution aspects in France,
Alain Anglade, ADEME, France
Discussion
14.00 Presentation of ENWAP Homepage,
P. Stancikova, CEIT
14.15 Results from survey on environmental priority needs in CEE/NIS countries,
P. Mollet, POLIS
14.30 Suggestions for working documents,
S. Azzali, ANIMATE
Discussion
Conclusions on follow-up actions
16.30 Coffee-break
16.45 Plan for the 5th Enwap-EG meeting at REC, Hungary:list of actions;