Therefore the government has been preoccupied with the transformation, with the economy having the first priority. This is also the area in which results are the most impressive. Three years after the declaration of independence the economic indicators are quite promising, and Slovenia has established itself among the wealthiest countries in the region. GDP growth in 1994 is anticipated to reach 4-5%, inflation is under control, the unemployment rate is declining, the balance of payments is positive, and Slovenia's per-capita foreign currency reserve figure is higher than that of Japan.
The preoccupation with the health of the economy has been accompanied by a shift away from "social values": quality of life, health, housing and the environment. While education was established as a strategic investment area eligible to receive additional funding with the support of the Parliament, budget spending for environmental protection declined for three consecutive years after 1991. This is despite the passing of the Environmental Protection Act in 1993 which calls for just the opposite. The 1995 budget proposals of the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning are designed to reverse the trend.
The Strategy of Economic Development is now being drafted by the National Agency for Macroeconomic Analysis and Development. A first step in the right direction is the fact that it includes a component on Environmental Aspects of the Development Strategy. The draft of this document was distributed in the fall of 1994 to scientific institutions, ministries and NGOs, along with an invitation to participate in the discussion.
Outside the MoE, the Act makes provisions for: The Environmental Protection Development Fund (Eco-Fund), founded in 1994 as a financial institution which would provide loans at favorable interest rates for investments in the field of environmental protection; the Environmental Protection Council, established in 1994 by the Parliament to oversee the effectiveness of environmental protection. The Council has "eleven members appointed by the National Assembly from among environmental protection experts and representatives of non-governmental organizations" (EPA, Article 90). Institute for Environmental Protection - to be replaced by a network of existing institutions performing research in environmental protection.
The Parliamentary Commission for Infrastructure and Environmental Protection consists of MPs, and serves as a consultative and review body for the Parliament in legislative issues connected to the field of environment. It cannot take initiative on its own, however it has responded to NGO pressure to conduct hearings twice.
The Department for Waste Management at the Chamber of Economy represents the interests of industry in negotiations with the MoE (it has been actively involved in the discussion process for the preparation of the recently released emissions standards). It also conducts some projects, phasing out Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS), cooperating with the MoE, projects for the Montreal Convention Fund; environmental management education courses; and Waste Exchange.)
The Chamber of Environmental Protection Operators was set up, (within the framework of the Chamber of the Economy) as an association of the legal and physical persons implementing environmental protection activities. Another similar association has been established independently of the Chamber.
The scientific community is rather passive on the whole and is fragmented into different scientific branches. When its members speak out in public, they typically do so as NGO members rather than as scientific authorities.
There are a number of independent and semi-independent scientific institutes: The Water Management Institute, The Josef Stefan Institute, The National Chemical Institute and The International Center for Chemical Studies.
A long-term agreement has just been signed between the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning and the Ministry of Science and Technology, an agreement which will support scientific research in environmental protection for a period of ten years.
The Slovene environmental NGO movement is fairly young, immature and fragmented. Up until a year ago, it had very limited sources of financing available. However, in 1994 it grew significantly, and was able to create a network with support from REC and the MoE. At the moment, the NGOs can hardly be described as key actors in environmental protection on the national level. However, they have the potential to become a significant force in the very near future.
Air pollution is mainly a problem in certain industrial and urban regions and has in the past been seriously and effectively addressed. "Environmental technology" has recently been declared a priority issue in an effort to include environmental considerations in the ongoing process of industrial restructuring. The new Minister also considers the greening of the attitudes and policies of other ministries to be an important priority.
The National Environmental Protection Program (NEPP) should contain the goals, guidelines and strategy of government policies related to environmental protection, including the use of natural resources for the next 10 or more years. It should be coordinated with national programs in other fields, and it should be divided into sections dealing with the global, national, regional, and local levels.
According to the EPA, NEPP should include in particular:
The goals and tasks of NEPP should be specified in detail by short-term working programs addressing time periods of not more than four years. The working programs are to be prepared by the MoE in cooperation with other competent ministries, and later have to be adopted by the Government.
So far a deposition of NEPP has been completed and presented to the public (NGOs, experts, media) at a seminar on the Dissemination of the EAP, held in Ljubljana in July 1994. Since then NEPP preparation activities have resumed under the direct personal instruction of the Minister. The Guidelines presented in July last year are presently under revision. The preparation of the State of the Environment Report for 1994 has been accelerated and when completed will form the basis of the NEPP. It is expected that the NEPP will be presented to the Parliament by June 1995.
There are a number of laws and regulations under preparation that will represent the regulatory components of environmental policy:
Environmental policy development also influences economic policy through the integration of various instruments which will accelerate structural transformation (through customs relief, financial measures) to encourage the use of environmentally sound technologies.
On the other hand there has been a positive experience in the drafting of the twelve recently-released Emissions Regulations. The drafting process involved numerous Slovene air quality experts from various institutions - research institutions, universities, and industry. The public debate lasted for several months, and was the most intense in debates involving the Chamber of Commerce; finally consensus was reached on specified standards. As a result, the actual endorsing of the documents by the government went very smoothly.
As far as the NEPP is concerned, the July 1994 seminar was more about "informing" the public rather than "exchanging information". At the seminar the NGOs were invited to participate in the drafting of the Program, however, it seems that the MoE has not figured out a method of constructively integrating NGO input.
Since then a few of the recommendations have been implemented, but most have not. One of the most pressing issues is the severe lack of policy and strategic resources to support the Minister, as the proposed Policy Unit has not been recruited. (One of the reasons this has not been done is that there is a government hiring freeze in effect.) The MoE has addressed this shortcoming by engaging external experts to advise on specific topics. This has proved to be quite successful in the drafting of new regulations. The newly passed law on the ministries does allow for the formation of a Policy Unit, and the plan is to recruit 3-4 advisors in the coming year.
The most recent restructuring efforts took place in December 1994. The MoE is now also responsible for Nature Protection and Conservation (which used to be the domain of the Ministry of Culture).
According to the latest changes the new structure of the MoE's environmental protection-related activities will be as follows:
Within the central core of the MoE there are:
Together they are responsible for policy and decision-making in environmental protection matters.
Units of the MoE responsible for Environmental Protection Implementation:
Slovene industry is export-oriented, with exports representing close to 60% of GDP (exports to EU countries account for over 55% of all foreign trade). The orientation towards western markets has resulted in a higher degree of environmental concern at major companies, which are complying with western standards to the point where all new products are evaluated according to environmental impact. These companies have identified major sources of environmental damage at their plants and have put improvement programs into place. They also have specialized departments for environmental research.
On the other hand, small production oriented towards the domestic market tends to disregard environmental protection and ignore standards, unless inspectors or pressure from the local community forces them to change and comply. The privatization law will have a significant impact on the environmental investments in the industry. The MoE has not been involved in the development of clean technologies, but is now hiring a technology advisor to focus on this issue and to serve as a liaison with industry.
The Ozone Depleting Substances project is to be funded by the Montreal Convention Fund and would eliminate CFCs from all production in Slovenia. It has led to good cooperation to introduce cleaner technologies in efforts involving the MoE, the Chamber of Commerce and eight companies.
Agricultural pollution in Slovenia has not attracted much attention, but it is threatening underground water reserves in certain regions. Apparently there are no coordinated efforts to address pesticide and fertilizer overuse.
Slovenia is on the crossroads between the north-west (Munich) and south-east (Zagreb), and the north-east (Vienna, Budapest) and south-east (Trieste), and transit traffic represents a serious environmental problem. A national highway construction program is underway, but not enough attention is given to the shift to railway transit transport. Environmental Impact Assessment studies are regularly commissioned for all highway projects, even though the standards for EIA have not been issued yet. Regulations are being prepared specifying the emissions standards for transiting vehicles. Domestic urban traffic is an additional burden on the air quality. In 1994, standards were issued requiring catalytic converters for vehicles sold in or imported to Slovenia which are equipped with positive-ignition engines.
Slovenes identify with the environment to an unusually high degree, and environmental concerns are an emotional issue for many, a fact which contributed to the early success of the Green Party. Lacking the proper grounding, its emotional energy was quickly exhausted when confronted with the real world of political and economic choices.
The Slovene NGO movement only recently started organizing itself in a way that will allow the development of a "green lobby". The movement is predominantly made up of young people, and older organizations find it difficult to adapt to the new system. There are no environmental NGOs of national importance. Only two have such ambitions: The Union of the Societies for Environmental Protection (founded in 1971 and now declining in significance) and the Slovenian Ecological Movement (founded in 1992, publisher of the quarterly magazine Okolje - Environment). The value of the NGOs lies not in their size, but in their diversity. There are groups and private institutes representing everything from sustainable agriculture and environmental management to bird watching and energy-efficiency. Currently there are about 50 registered environmental NGOs, which are organized in an informal network. Translating environmental literature from foreign languages into Slovene is an important contribution of these groups, especially given the lack of commercial publisher interest in such undertakings.
The scientific community is very reserved and usually does not engage in public debates. An example of this passive approach was "Environment in Slovenia", a compilation of articles on the environment published in the summer of 1994 by the Slovene Academy of Science and Art's Council for Research and Protection of the Environment. Editorial work was completed in October 1992, but due to a lack of finances, it was not published until two years later, by which time much of the information was outdated. The publication was still impressive: a 670-page edition involving contributions of about 100 authors.
The mainstream media devotes very little attention to environmental issues. In the late 1980's, when environmental issues received wide attention in the western media, other issues held the attention of the Slovene media: political changes and calls for independence. Environmental problems only make the news when there is a scandal of some sort involved: a returned shipment of toxic waste, sit-ins at landfill sites, replacement of the minister etc. Even then, the issues are examined very superficially. The media does little to educate the population about the environment. The Ministry is partly to blame, as it is not doing enough effort to improve the situation.
The green consumers in the Western countries, together with the high environmental standards there, serve as important indirect "Green lobbyists." For the predominantly export-oriented industrial sector, the environmentally-sensitive markets and regulations of the EU countries exert strong pressure to change attitudes and undertake environmental improvements.
In addition to the above sources, environmental improvement is supported by bilateral aid, primarily from the European Union. Other donors include the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Austria and France.
In the coming years a significant boost to environmental investments will result from a provision in the privatization law that enables companies to reserve long-term funds for investments in environmental improvement. Companies that are committed to making investments in environmental improvement within a period of up to five years need to obtain project endorsement from the MoE's Nature Protection Administration in order to discount the investment from their opening balance (as an environmental liability). So far the MoE has endorsed over one hundred project documents (the highest worth $120 million).
The MoE has a part-time western advisor responsible for coordinating environmental improvement programs funded by third-party nations and institutions, and for ensuring acceptable reporting to donor organizations.
A key strategic document within the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning is the Master Plan for Institutional Development for Environmental Protection published in November 1993, which now forms a significant component of the MoE's institutional development program. The Environmental Action Program for Central and Eastern Europe was translated into Slovene and published in the fall of 1994. It was distributed to other ministries, NGOs, schools and universities, libraries, the media, research institutions and some businesses.
Little attention has been paid to national strategic considerations in these issues, and little attempt has been made to consult with local people before decisions are made. During the development of the Master Plan for Institutional Development, an experiment was carried out on using decision-making techniques to prioritize national environmental issues. One of the workshops held during this project established a clear set of priorities, which are now becoming integrated into national thought. However, this was just one workshop, and there is a clear need for further development to provide a more reliable guide to national priorities.
The management of waste is a clear national priority. Over the last three years, the government has made several attempts to bring waste management under control, but it is only now that the necessary legislation and technical framework is starting to be put into place, with support from the EU-LIFE program. Planned regulations will address recording of the production and storage of industrial wastes; tracking of the movement of controlled wastes after they leave the factory; licensing of transport, brokers and processors of waste; waste minimization; and packaging standards. A strategic plan for municipal waste, based on current technical and market conditions, is being developed using an advanced model created in Slovenia.
Among the concrete examples of achievement and problems, it is worth noting the following results and problems:
Slovenia is determined to climb to the top of the "international tree" as soon as possible, which naturally leads to unrealistic aspirations.
The Environmental Policy for the Republic has been supported by the publication of the 1993 Environmental Protection Act. The EPA is a first-rate example of umbrella legislation, but will require a whole series of enabling regulations to be put into place for it to become effective. These regulations are now being prepared. However, a key element in the process is still sadly lacking - there is no effective inspection body, raising the danger that the new legislation could become discredited owing to inadequate enforcement.
Institution building is very important for the development of a viable environmental protection regime in Slovenia. This goal is at odds with that of the Finance Ministry, whose concern with controlling inflation has kept very severe constraints on the numbers and salaries of civil servants throughout the Republic. However, it must be said that there could be an imbalance within the MoE, with a large number of scientists outnumbering a tiny group of policy makers supporting the Minister. This imbalance is starting to be addressed, but there is a long way to go.
In the absence of a National Environmental Strategy, it is not easy to involve the general public in the process of policy making. Hopefully, during 1995 the Strategy will be formulated, with a high degree of public participation.
The real challenge now is to combine continued economic stability with improved quality of life, including the improvement of an already beautiful natural environment.