COUNTRY REPORTS * SLOVENIA
The political importance of environmental matters compared to other fields of policy and legislation (i.e. the economy) cannot be neglected. Although economic development and investment are considered as strong factors influencing the environment, the political weight of the "green" parties is too low to have any direct influence on political decisions. The general structure of environmental legislation follows the general pattern of the legal system of the Republic of Slovenia. The hierarchy of legal sources relevant for environmental protection is the following:
Article 72 of the constitution provides for a Healthy Living Environment, as a basic human right.
The Republic of Slovenia has a general environmental code covering all the most important fields of the environment and environmental activities. This is the Environmental Protection Act (enacted in 1993; Official Gazette of RS, No. 32/93). The emphasis of the legislation (that is, on the elements of the environment and on the complex protection of the environment) is enacted in the Environmental Protection Act of 1993. The main issues covered by the basic environmental law are:
The role of command-and-control and the role of economic incentives in the field of environmental legislation are also prescribed in the Environmental Protection Act. Economic incentives are limited to low-interest loans and it appears that the command-and-control method still prevails within the environmental protection system in Slovenia, in spite of the fact that Article 13 of the Environmental Protection Act expressly enshrines the "Principle of Incentives," and requires both the state and local authorities to encourage activities which will reduce the strain on the environment.
The state organs which are involved in environmental legislation are:
The Ministry of the Environment and Regional Planning is a department of the government responsible for environmental administration. The ministry coordinates the following agencies which are also involved in environmental legislation:
Local and regional public authorities are also delegated certain tasks in the field of the environment. These tasks include environmental measures in matters of local significance, full disclosure of construction plans, reimbursement for ecological damage, supervision, etc. Environmental provisions are also included in the basic civil and criminal laws. This is important because the political program which deals with harmonization of the law (i.e. approximation of the law with that of the EU) must entail this. All legislative proposals must include a statement on their compatibility with EU legislation. The Government Office for Legislation and the Directorate for European Integration within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are the Governmental organizations which deal with this topic.