Citizens, as individuals or as a group of citizens, are granted the right to a healthy environment, the right of information and expression, the right of peaceful and unarmed assembly, the right of free association and the right to lodge petitions and complaints.
The right to a healthy environment is defined in Art.72 of the Constitution and is not placed in the chapter of basic human rights and freedoms. At the time the Constitution was adopted, the prevailing opinion was that this right had not been developed sufficiently to be protected in court - thus, the right to a healthy environment cannot be exercised under the Constitution directly; but is subject to the legislator's competence.
The same article states that the State shall be responsible for the healthy environment and the "polluter pays principle" is also introduced, implying that any person damaging the environment shall be obliged to compensate for the damage, as determined by statute. Furthermore, Art.73 of the Constitution, which deals with national and cultural heritage, obliges each person, in accordance with the statute, to protect rare and precious natural areas, as well as structures and objects which form part of the national heritage. The State and local government bodies are responsible for the preservation of such heritage.
The right of expression is guaranteed by Art.39 of the Constitution including freedom of expression of thought, freedom of speech and freedom of association, freedom of the press and of other forms of public communication and expression. This includes the right to free collection, receipt and distribution of information and facts.
The right to be informed, as provided by Art.39:2 of the Constitution, refers to information obtained from competent bodies of the state, local authorities and other sources. In this case, an interested person must show sufficient legal interest as determined by statute, that is, an action or an omission encroaches on his/her rights or freedoms protected by the Constitution or by the law. This right may be limited in case of state, military or business secrets, but in order not to set limits to the access to the information, it is not sufficient to declare it as a secret by the law only, but the content of such information should correspond to criteria specifically stated by law.
The right to correct published information which has caused damage to the rights or interests of an individual, organization or official body, as well as the right to reply to such published information is also guaranteed (Art. 40) The highest political bodies have special information services: Governmental Public Relations and Media Office, Information Service of the National Assembly, Information and Documentation Service of the President of Republic.
The right of peaceful assembly and to participate in meetings, enables public protest (Art.42), which can be an effective means of shaping public opinion with respect to environmental protection. This constitutional right can be limited for reasons of - amongst others - national security or public safety. The right of association, apart from similar exceptions, applies only to citizens of the Republic of Slovenia. The fulfillment of this right is left to the legislators. The current Law on (Private) Association is presently the subject of parliamentary proceedings since it dates from 1974 - the second parliamentary debate is expected to take place at the end of the year. In principle, the right of association cannot be restricted by any fixed, prescribed forms.
The right to present petitions and to initiate other activity of a general nature to the authorities is also guaranteed (Art.45) but is explicitly limited to the citizens of the Republic of Slovenia. The manner and the form of petitions, as well as the bodies to which they can be addressed, are not clearly defined, but because a petition must be of general significance, it can only be addressed to the relative body or organization. The weakness of this provision is that the rights and obligations of those subject to the petition are not defined. The highest political bodies have special services designed to receive citizen petitions, such as the Petition Commission of the National Assembly.
The right to petition the Constitutional Court for review is guaranteed by Art.162, according to which any person who can show a proper legal interest, as determined by statute, can bring a case to court. This legal interest is defined by the 1994 Constitutional Court Act. The legal interest is given in cases if a person who placed the petition can prove that his/her rights, legal interest or legal position has been encroached or breached.
The Council is made up of 40 members, six of whom represent professional NGOs organized at national level, such as professional chambers, associations and unions. There are no representatives from the field of environmental protection and no place within the Council for NGOs not defined and founded as corporate bodies of professional interests.
In Slovenia, the rules of legislative procedure should be enacted by the National Assembly, but a proposal to amend the Constitution may be put forward by no fewer than 30,000 voters. The right of initiative is also given. A petition of at least 5000 voters may initiate the consideration of legislation in the National Assembly, while a petition of at least 40,000 voters is required for a mandatory binding referendum on any issue which is the subject of regulation by statute (Art.90). All citizens eligible to vote generally have the right to vote in a referendum. A proposal put to referendum can be adopted, provided the majority of voters support the proposal - thus, the National Assembly is bound by the results of such a referendum.
At local level, rulemaking also includes the right of a municipal council to call a referendum related to one of its acts or other decisions, on its own initiative or at the request of a minimum of 10 percent of its electorate (Art.46). All the voters in the municipality have the right to vote, the majority vote applies while the manner of casting votes at a referendum is defined in greater detail by the statute of the municipality and in conjunction with the 1994 Law on Referendum and Public Initiative.
Public initiative is also possible at local, self-government level and provides that (Art.48) citizens can request the issuance or the invalidation of a general act or other decision from the jurisdiction of the Municipal Council or other municipal bodies at the request of at least 5 percent of the voters in the municipality. The official body which has been addressed through a public initiative is obliged to decide on the matter within a time determined by a statute of the municipality, but which may not be longer than three months.
The public and NGOs have little opportunity to make a direct impact on the decisionmaking of parliament and central government with respect to the environment and the vast majority of lawmaking has been at governmental level until now. There have been few opportunities for the public to participate in the parliamentary legislative process, although parliamentary committees may hold public hearings and may allow interested associations and individuals to assist in drafting bills.
The governmental lawmaking process includes a consultation process wherein interested governmental authorities have the opportunity to comment on draft laws. At the same time, other quasi-governmental institutions such as scientific academies, university faculties and government institutes, are generally asked to review draft laws. Occasionally this process may be expanded to include interested members of the public or non-governmental organizations. The government is under no obligation to make draft laws public however and, in many cases, the responsible authority wishes to avoid leaking the draft to the public and therefore refuses to widen the consultation process.
Under the Environmental Protection Act adopted in 1993, an Environmental Protection Council was established by the National Assembly (Slovenian Parliament). The independent, 11-member council includes one environmental NGO representative. The task of the Council is to adopt positions, give opinions and suggestions and inform the public about issues relating to environmental law and policy.
There are several possibilities for public participation in the local level decisionmaking processes. These are important because the execution of certain environmental protection tasks lies within the jurisdiction of local self-governing communities and also the right of co-operation in public affairs is, to a large extent, directly executed at local level. The basic principles for the functioning of local self-government are laid down in the Constitution (Art.138 -144) and the details are regulated in the Local Self-government Act (LSA).
The Constitution also provides that citizens may join together and form self-governing local bodies to further their common interests (Art.145). Specific matters falling within the jurisdiction of the State may be left by statute to be realized by these bodies. This provision might prove to be a useful tool for public participation at the local level.
Citizens of local self-governing communities (individuals with permanent residency living within the boundaries of local self-governing communities) decide on the affairs of the local self-government through a council, which is elected freely and secretly on the basis of direct, equal and general voting rights. (Art.11) A direct form of decisionmaking by the citizens in these local self-governing communities on matters of local self-government are the local assembly, the referendum and the public initiative, as mentioned above. The LSA decides the legal arrangement of municipalities as principal, self-governing local communities. The highest decisionmaking body in the municipality is the Municipal Council (Art.29) and within the jurisdiction of the Municipal Council is the adoption of the Statute. This act also defines the method by which the public must be informed of the work performed by the municipal bodies (Art.36), and prescribing the form of cooperation the citizens should take in the decisionmaking process (Art.64). The Statute and other regulations of the municipality are to be published in an Official Bulletin (Art.66).
The assembly of members of citizens may be convened for the entire municipality or for an individual area, and may be called by the Mayor independently, on the initiative of the Municipal Council, or on the demand of 5 percent of the electorate of the municipality.
The right of appeal and the right to any other legal redress is granted, but only in relation to the decision of the relative court or government body, while the right to compensation for damages suffered as a consequence of the wrongful performance of duties carried out by governmental authorities is guaranteed under Art.26 of the Constitution. The Ombudsman's Office is responsible for estimating the constitutionality and legality of regulations and general acts and for enforcement of public authorizations. Established under Art.159 of the 1993 Constitution and the Law on Human Rights Ombudsman, the first Slovenian Ombudsman was elected on September 29, 1994 and started work on January 9, 1995.
According to the Constitution, the Ombudsman is responsible for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in matters involving State bodies, local government bodies and statutory authorities (Art.159). The Law on Human Rights Ombudsman determines the independence and autonomy of the Ombudsman's work. Anybody who believes his/her human rights or basic freedoms have been breached by a State, local authority or statutory authority act, may initiate procedures, while the Ombudsman may also start the procedure independently. The Ombudsman only deals with cases where the legitimacy of legal procedure or misuse of authority is in question.
The Ombudsman compiles a report which consists of: an evaluation of facts and circumstances related to a particular case and whether there has been a breach of basic human rights and freedoms, and if so, in what manner. The report includes proposals concerning the manner of redress of the stated irregularities and includes proposals for renewal of procedure and compensation for damage. The office of the Ombudsman can initiate disciplinary proceedings against official body's employees found guilty of irregularities. Official bodies are obliged to inform the Ombudsman of measures taken on the basis of the office's proposals.
However, while the Constitution (Art.159) foresees that selected Ombudsmen may be empowered by statute to be responsible for particular areas, the current law does not provide a special Ombudsman responsible for environmental protection. The 1993 Environmental Protection Act, however, provides (Art.15:5), that the responsibility of the Ombudsman's Office includes the protection of the right of citizens to a healthy environment as a special field in accordance with the law.
According to official sources, the working capacity of one of the three Ombudsman's deputies also involves the protection of this right. At the moment, the proposal of a constitutional act which will comprise criteria for shaping particular fields of the Ombudsman's activities is being prepared. However, there are no initiatives concerning environmental protection. The acceptance of such a constitutional act is within the sphere of the Ombudsman, following consultation with the National Assembly. The act has to be published in an Official Bulletin. The Environmental Protection Act anticipates co-operation between the Environmental Protection Council and the Ombudsman. (Art.91:2). The institution of the Ombudsman's Office is very new and consequently ill-used at present - there have been no reported cases where the Office has been asked to act in an environmental issue.
The function of the Parliamentary Commissioner does not exist in Slovenia.
The Constitution provides that courts of competent jurisdiction are empowered to decide upon the legal validity of decisions of State bodies, local government bodies and statutory authorities made in relation to administrative disputes and concerning the rights, obligations and legal entitlements of individuals or organizations. But this only relates to cases where alternative legal redress is not specifically provided by statute (Art.157). If no other legal redress is provided, courts of competent jurisdiction are also empowered to decide upon the legal validity of individual activities and acts which infringe the constitutional rights of the individual.
According to Art.125-134 of the Constitution and the 1994 Law on Courts, the judicial system is being reformed and the courts reorganized, despite this, the office of judge is permanent. However, the biggest problem from the past to be resolved is that the courts are overloaded and thus proceedings lengthy. With this in mind, Art.72 and 73 of the Law on Courts allows a complainant to address the president of the court directly or through the Ministry of Justice if he or she believes a case is unnecessarily lengthy or if the length of the case prejudices the case in any way. Following such a complaint, the president of a court may demand the judge running the proceedings to report on the state of the case itself.
In Slovenia, the party to administrative proceedings is defined as a person or group (perhaps a commune) who initiates proceedings, is the subject of proceedings or any person or group attempting to protect their own rights and legal benefits - provided they can show a proper legal interest (the law always defines 'legal interest') - thus, this can also be used by NGOs for public participation purposes.
According to this provision, information on environmental conditions and changes, the procedures and activities of bodies of the State and the local authorities, of the parties involved in the delivery of public services and those with public authorizations relating to the environment, should be open to the public. (Art.14) These mentioned parties are required to inform the public and provide information to interested individuals and organizations in the prescribed manner not later than one month of the request for such information and at price which may not exceed the material costs of providing the information.
This regulation requires businesses and all legal persons responsible for in any way or form damaging the environment, to provide public access to the information about the environmental damage they may cause. They also must appoint an environmental protection officer whose duty is, amongst others, to ensure public access to information concerning environmental damage through the competent department of local authorities, or in the case of urban municipalities, by a competent institute. This means practically a reporting requirement, since the information gained from them should be accessible through the relevant department of local authorities to the public. However, the information should be requested from the authorities or a competent institute and not directly from the polluter' s environmental protection officer. Any interested individual or organization may request information concerning environmental damage caused by individual polluters. Until now, the regulation of conditions, which the environmental protection officer must satisfy, have not been prescribed.
Specific penal provisions are included in the EPA - fines start at a minimum of US $100,000 for failing to ensure public access to the information concerning environmental damage.
The EPA also prescribes that persons engaged in any productive or non-productive activity should, as part of their operation, conduct ecological record keeping, which should contain energy and material consumption records together with the nature and characteristics of environmental strain (Art.42). The records must be kept in the prescribed manner and the data should be presented to the MoE. This provision, however does not state whether this information should be made public or not.
According to the provisions of the EPA, the State must establish a monitoring system, making regularly available to the public information related to the results of monitoring and related warnings local authorities and other interested organizations through public media and other means (Art.68). The State should also ensure early warning against potential dangers, although until now the regulations which are necessary for implementation of a unified monitoring system have not been prepared.
Freedom of information and providing information through the media is governed by the 1994 Law on the Public Media - this law states that government bodies, local government bodies or statutory authority must inform the public of their work, in a manner to give timely, complete and truthful information concerning questions of their field of activity (Art.24). Supplying information to journalists may be denied only in cases where the information is defined in prescribed manner as a state, military, official or business secret (this would mean infringement of secret or personal data or when it could harm a court trial). Art.67 allows foreign printed media to be brought into the country freely.
EIA is required for a whole range of activities, including the approval process for proposed activities such as new construction of greenfield facilities and reconstruction of existing facilities. In addition, it applies to facilities which continue to operate without any proposed changes.
The environmental impact report should be an integral part of the application for obtaining the license for an activity affecting the environment, as defined in the statute (Art.55).
Public participation is the responsibility of the body deciding the licensing issue (Art.59:1), and is governed by Art.60. This prescribes conditions for the public participation which must assure presentation of draft activities, and a report on EIA, and includes including public discussions hearings. The EIA report should contain all the necessary technical and graphical components in a form suitable for public presentation, except where these components form an integral part of the design, in which case, the public presentation must assure presentation of the entire project. Public announcement has to be published in public media and announced in the usual local manner. It must include a list of concerned parties, a method of contribution of opinions and comments by the public, and a summary of the environmental impact report with final judgement in a form suitable for public presentation.
However, the provision governing public participation does not state to what effect the opinions and comments given by the public will have on the decisionmaking proceedings.
The provision of Art.60 of the EPA, due to the lack of detailed regulations required by the EPA, has not been implemented in practice. There are also regulations which will define the categories for which an EIA is mandatory (Art.57:1 related to Art.109:3 of the EPA); and a regulation which will determine the categories of environmental strain which must be assessed, the categories and the scope of the assessment, the methodology for the preparation of an environmental impact report, and the conditions and procedure for obtaining authorization for the preparation of the environmental impact report.
The proposals of both regulations are being prepared and their promulgation and implementation in practice are expected at the end of 1995. At the same time, ratification of the the Espoo Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, is foreseen in the near future.
The 1981 Law on Natural and Cultural Heritage, covering nature conservation, and the 1981 Water Management Law, both adopted before the change of political system in Slovenia in 1991, contain provisions ensuring public participation in accordance with the former system of socialist self-management, but they - in accordance with the Enabling Statute for the Implementation of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia, 1991 - have ceased to have force. According to official sources, new laws concerning natural resources and water management are being prepared.
There is no separate Waste Management Law, Air Protection Law, Law on the Use of Energy, or Law on the Use of Nuclear Energy. These fields of environmental protection are particularly covered by regulations currently in effect, predating the passage of the EPA, but existing regulations do not contain provisions ensuring public participation.
Public participation, however is included in the administrative proceedings concerning the adoption of territorial/ planning consent, the Law on Urban Planning, in effect since 1984.
Public participation is ensured by public presentation and public discussion of drafts of plans and implementation documents, organized by the offices of concerned municipalities or districts. Citizens can offer comment, opinion and suggestions on the documents in question. After public discussion, the final draft of documents is adopted and the administrative body in charge of the final version of the draft must answer any queries. However, there is no public participation provided in the proceedings concerning the final adoption of the document.
When the bodies of the State, Local Authorities and Statutory Authorities decide to grant a license related to an activity effecting the environment, they act in accordance with rules of administrative procedure. Those individuals and organizations possibly affected in any way, should have the right to take part in the administrative procedure and therefore they can use the right to file a complaint and other remedies in accordance with rules of general administrative procedure and with rules of procedure on disputes as to administrative matters before a court of law.
To exercise their right to a healthy and clean environment, individual citizens, their associations, unions and organizations, may also use the civil process and file a suit with the court, demanding the termination of an activity, if such an activity presents or will present an immediate threat to the environment or a direct danger to the life and health of the people. They may also demand the activity be prohibited if the likelihood of the above -mentioned effects can be demonstrated with reasonable certainty.
The EPA states that the party responsible for excessive environmental damage, as well as any related parties, shall be held criminally liable and liable for damage in accordance with the law. But the EPA does not define which activity affecting the environment are criminal offenses, and does not regulate a liability for damage; both are left to be regulated by proper legislation (1994 Penal Code and the 1978 Law on Obligations). Liability for damage applies also to the State and local authorities respectively.
General provisions concerning liability for damage come under the 1978 Law on Obligations. Provisions, which are the most important for civil procedures for damage compensation concerning environmental protection, provide that anyone who causes a damage has to indemnify it, unless he or she proves they are otherwise not responsible.
The 1994 Penal Code defines a special category for criminal offenses against the environment and natural resources (Art.333-347), which covers intention or negligence. It is necessary to emphasize that all ecological penal offenses covered in this code are of a vague nature and therefore they have their basis in particular regulations outside the framework of the Penal Code, specifically in the EPA, to name one.
EIA proceedings will not be finalized until the end of 1995, while most regulations related to the water, air and soil pollution are expected to be accomplished by the middle of 1996. By giving substance to the public participation requirements of the EPA, the EIA regulations will represent a significant step forward in the ability of the public to participate in the decisionmaking process. At present, there is no definite procedure for environmental impact assessments. Also in progress are draft laws on land use and urban planning and construction permitting. As among the anticipated provisions, these laws are related to the publication of local development plans, with the right of individuals and organizations to give comment in writing and at public hearings, and approval processes for major projects that require consultations and public "consent" prior to the issuance of permits.
Another problem hindering existing legal practice is the overloaded capacity of legal machinery and the general underestimation of the importance of the environment in legal process. "Environment can wait" could be the slogan of most of prosecutors and judges.
Since "everything is in transition", the level of legal uncertainties is relatively high and demands permanent information and education on actual legal changes and complex, high-cost legal expertise. At the same time, the level of legal culture and the intention to use legal instruments is very low, both amongst citizens and within the NGO community. There is a lack of understanding of basic legal concepts and an absence of basic legal skills which greatly hamper legal practices. There are some possibilities for public participation, but citizens and NGOs do not know of them and do not explore even the existing possibilities, such as the parliamentary committee and the Office of the Ombudsman. The average legal consciousness is low and limited to the civil and the criminal code. The legal status of NGOs is not developed, while the forthcoming legislation on associations does not legally distinguish between members and public servicing activities of NGOs.
Given these problems, the only efficient instruments in the hands of public are the access to information provisions, the administrative procedures and some of the legal remedies, which are probably the most frequently used instruments. The constitutionally guaranteed basic rights, such as the right to free assembly, are also used in practice, NGOs base their concrete actions on them.
The most important missing legal instruments in the Slovenian environmental legal framework for public participation include the environmental assessment provisions, the media specific laws,(waste, water, soil, air).
The Slovenian Law on Development Planning in the transitional period states in its second paragraph that the amendments and additions of the long-term development plans have to be prepared and adopted according to the same procedure as the adoption of the spatial executive plans. It refers to the paragraphs 34 to 39 of the Law on Urban Planning and other developments also in connection with the preparation of the long-term and medium-term development plans of the local communities. In accordance with paragraph 37 of the cited law the executive council of the regional community determines, that the draft of the spatial executive plan is publicly disclosed in the regional center and in the affected local communities. The public has to have access to the draft of the plan for at least one month. The draft of the plan has to include a short explanation of the proposed solutions and the maps and other additional documents, from which the proposed measures can be viewed and their effects assessed.
In accordance with the. paragraph 38 of the cited law a public hearing has to be held during the time of the public disclosure of the drafted plan. The inhabitants of the local communities have to be notified about the public disclosure of the plan and about the public hearing which will be held in connection with it. Paragraph 43 includes a provision that the spatial executive plans can only be changed in accordance with the same procedure which is prescribed for their adoption.
The Constitutional Court made the conclusion that the procedure for the preparation and adoption of the amendments of the long-term development plan of the region Koper for the period from 1986 to the year 2000 has not been carried out in accordance with cited provisions of the law which applies in this case. The draft of the plan has not been publicly disclosed in the affected local community and the inhabitants of the local community have not been adequately notified about the public hearing and they did not have the access to the planning documentation. The court stated that therefore the lawful right to participate in the planning process of the inhabitants of the village Premcan has been infringed and annulled the disputed provisions.
The promoters of non-formal public participation were not the well established associations integrated within the institutional framework but new, semiformal ad hoc groups of citizens. These groups at first did not fulfill the criteria of a legal, stable and transparent organization but on the other hand, there were several NGOs already on the scene which have been strongly linked with the former ruling elite. In the transitory period from 1989 to 1992, the coalition between old "NGOs" and "new social movements" in Slovenia was broken. Most of the environmentalist citizens groups have regrouped and amalgamated, and as Slovenia has become more stable, the process of transformation and establishment of new NGOs is rapidly taking place. But the realm of NGOs is not well structured yet, and the rules of the game within the NGO community are still not stable and transparent. There are now about 80 environmental, nature protection organizations which could be considered NGOs of various sizes, level and structure, but there is still a lot of confusion regarding the character of some NGOs. Many of them try to be single issue, support and servicing organizations, but at the same time research experts promoting a lifestyle, organizing campaigns and scientific support. However, the first attempts at building coalitions amongst the NGOs from various fields in order to improve their general conditions (tax deductive support, redefinition of the legal definition of "association" in forthcoming Law on Associations) has also been made.
However, public participation in the decisionmaking processes on the parliamentary level, has two major characteristics in Slovenia. The first is that the parliament is used as a "central court" for lobbying since the power of parliament is much stronger than in countries with long traditions of parliamentary democracy. The lobbying process is focused on MPs. They are in principle addressed as individuals with certain professional, social, regional and family backgrounds regardless to their political orientation. Secondly, the lobbyists represent the interests of strong social strata and their mass organizations (pensioners, handicapped, trade unions), interests of business (chamber of industry, certain industry branches and enterprises) or professional groups (doctors, lawyers, artists), but unfortunately the public interest groups including environmental NGOs are very weak in presenting their position among the professional pressure groups.
Unfortunately, the situation is not much better regarding the opportunities for public participation on the level of central government. Presently, the main policy objectives of the Slovenian government are related to financial, fiscal and employment issues. Policies in the other areas are in the shadow of these main goals and are still in their infancy. Generally speaking - the policies of the government are predominantly expert rather than consultative based. Thus the policy communities are not including the public and NGO representatives. As a consequence, the government in general does not tend to take an initiative to involve a broader audience in decisionmaking. However, the government is very responsible and co-operative to the initiatives which could undermine the political consensus of the ruling coalition. The environmental issued initiatives are not of that kind and are thus limited to relation between the MoE and the NGOs, the public.
Although the communication between NGOs and the MoE is improving, there are no regular meetings or forums for discussion yet. So far, the relationship between the NGOs and the MoE is based more on ad hoc contacts than on different forms of stable cooperation. These contacts are highly personalized and in case of political or personal changes there is usually no continuity in them. There is very limited input by NGOs and the public in major environmental strategy and policy decisions and legislative drafts.
In this regard the process of the development of the National Environmental Action Plan is very characteristic. It has been promised by MoE that the NGOs will be able to take part in this process but the whole project is very tardy and the evaluation of the state of the environment as a precondition of NEAP will not be finished until autumn this year. The concept under formulation so far is to be exclusively expert based. The only governmental initiative aiming to encourage direct feedback from environmental NGOs has been relegated to the National Strategy of Economy Development, soon to be prepared. The Institute for Macroeconomics Analysis and Development has organized a public hearing in spring 1995.
Since the municipalities had been legally redefined by their territory, size, status and competencies by the new legislation on local self management in summer 1994 and the new authorities came to power some six months ago, it is difficult to give judgements on the actual state of the art of public participation at the local level. It could only be stated that reform as such aimed to open more direct public participation in general. It should be mentioned that few NGO groups work closely with municipalities, primarily because the structure and scope of the municipalities was unclear until last summer.
In order to improve their communication and information exchange capacities, NGOs recently agreed to get connected through INTERNET and to organize a workshop on communication with mass media. The workshop was carried out with a relatively feeble level of participation. Computer networking is progressing very slowly.
Non-formal public participation in environmental protection has been mainly characterized by its anti-institutionalism. It has both been progressive because of the very nature of conservation and environmentalism, but also conservative because while it has oriented towards technological and technical alternatives, it has also been anti-modernist and anti-technological. However, in both cases it has not challenged institutional designs, either with elaborated criticism or with alternative solutions. The practices of public participation have been designed with courage, passion and fantasy and this attracts not only dissident-minded intellectuals, but also the ordinary people and thus was earlier very attractive to the mass media. However, the practices of non-legal public participation remain either limited to their symbolical message or limited politically due to the imprecise nature of the claims and demands.
According to estimates, the percentage of NGOs involved in public participation varies from 5-30 percent. They use a broad range of different non-formal tools.; however, demonstrations, campaign posters, action coalitions, and cooperation with CEE NGOs are seldom used.
The use of non-formal instruments is predominantly related to development and investment plans on state as well as at local level, on major polluting and environmental issues but it is not evident in the consideration of environmental policy documents/issues, drafting or legislation or their implementation.
At local level, the most convenient non-formal instrument of public participation seems to be the semi-official meetings with local mayors and councillors and public hearings with the state administration or private investors. NGOs do not refer very often to specific legal rights but tend to prefer ad hoc practices. Still there are examples when the legal and non-formal tools are used in a combined way.
A few examples can be given. The Slovenian E-Forum prepared comments on the draft Law on Rational Use of Energy which has been sent to the state secretary for energy in form of recommendations and also was published in the mass media. The Bird Observation and Protection Association (DOPSS) participated in drafting legislation on the protection of Skocjanski zatok after the direct link between DOPSS and high officials of MoE had been established. In this case, both partners involved in the drafting process were open to cooperation and the initiative did not come alone from DOPSS. Recently, Umanotera and Opened Circle (Odprti krog) referred to the constitutional right of information while requesting a detailed explanation of the Transport Treaty between Slovenia and the European Union. The petition has been signed by 29 other NGOs. For the time being, the answer of the government has not been given. The right to participate in decisionmaking considering planning and permitting process, given by the Law on Urban Planning and Other Spatial Interference, has been used by the Slovenian Environmental Movement (SEG) and The Environmental League (ZVOS) in a campaign for alternative corridors to the highways provided by the national plan on highway construction. The SEG also used the right to require estimation of concordance of the constitutional and legal background of the land use plan for the highway between Arja vas and Locica at the beginning of 1994, but was denied by the Constitutional Court. This right in most cases is used by the residents of local communities.
However, there were a few workshops organized on this subject. In the spring of 1995, the MoE organized a workshop on public participation considering National Program of Highway Construction where NGO activists were also invited to take part. However, the workshop was predominantly legally oriented. This was the only government initiative aimed at enlarging the capacities for public participation in the environmental area. A few other workshops were organized on different issues of capacity building including a workshop on communication with media and on networking among NGOs this spring.
Capacity building initiatives for public participation has come so far mostly from international foundations and foreign NGOs. Besides the REC public participation workshop and follow up activities, no other specific education and training program has been carried out.
In the past two years the MoE has given funding for NGO activities through grant programs. However, from the actual practices the long-term grant policy of MoE to support public participation capacity building is not recognizable. The amount of grants for NGOs compared to other budget expenses seems rather miserable. A part of the grants should each year be devoted to the special purpose of the public participation capacity building and education/training programs. Another governmental fund which could be used for the environmental public participation is available within the Youth Office of the Republic of Slovenia (Urad za mladino RS). NGOs seem not to be well enough informed about this latter possibility. The purposes of this funding are limited to the education and training of youth.
Recently, two environmental NGO initiated funding organizations have been established in Slovenia: the Fund for Nature and Umanoterra (Slovenian Foundation for Sustainable Development). Since they are new born, it is hard to estimate their role both generally and from a public participation point of view. Public participation does not seem to be a priority for any of them.
Most of the funding for public participation activities comes from international foundations and foreign assistance programs including REC, the Open Society Fund, PHARE TACIS and PHARE Democracy Programs. These are available for public participation capacity building but not yet fully utilized by NGOs.
In the non-formal field, the major accomplishment is the relatively high level of development of the NGO community which is partly a consequence of the specific political culture and development path carrying both positive and negative elements. The Slovenian NGO movement after the difficult years of political disintegration, seems to find a way to redefine and organize itself anew - tapping into new, relatively flexible, non-partisan professional and grassroots citizens groups. Despite the low level of the institutionalized public participation practices, the NGOs and the public find ways to obtain information or influence the decision makers. Though, we could hardly speak about the NGOs in the Western sense of structurally and professionally well developed and financially independent organizations from the state; in Slovenia, the concept of "NGO" often covers a variety of structures and practices that are becoming to a citizen group.
There is an incomplete legal framework for environmental protection due to the large delays in fulfilling the gaps between the general legislative framework and the (missing) regulations and directives. It is believed that the finalization of EIA proceedings will be done by the end of 1995 while most regulation related to the water, air and soil pollution are expected to be accomplished not before the middle of 1996.
In the non-formal field the biggest problem is that the NGO community is still not strong and well developed. A lack of skills and capabilities doesn't permit efficient practice of public participation. People lack the skills and capacities in communication and cooperation with one another. The decision makers are far from the wider public. The NGOs are often weak in building coalitions with possible allies either within or outside of the environmental movement.
The lack of an independent and professional environmental media can be seen as one of the key obstacles to the development of both, legal and non-formal instruments of public participation.
In the non-formal field, the most important need at governmental level is to enforce the cooperation with NGOs and to have a regular dialogue with the NGOs and citizens in order to get input from them for important policy and strategy issues. The communication with NGOs and public can be improved by appointing a special state official within the MoE responsible for cooperation with the NGOs and informing the public. It is equally important to elaborate and implement a policy of capacity building for improving public participation both for the officials of the environmental administration and the NGOs. These programs can be realized in cooperation with the skilled NGOs.
Parliament needs to give more attention to public participation and support the legislative process in this regard. They need to provide more organized forms of contacts, more public meetings with NGOs and a more open access to information flow towards them. In order to use the capacity of NGO experts in decision and law making there needs to be a more direct interaction and cooperation between the Committee of Environment and the NGOs. This can take different forms such as regular meetings, public hearings, increasing the number of NGO representatives in the advisory bodies like the Environmental Protection Council, etc. Through such a cooperation, trust can be built between the Environmental Committee and Council members and NGO representatives.
Municipalities need to introduce the idea of public participation within their new constitutional and political framework and promote positive experiences in public participation for the benefit of local communities. A mutual cross-municipal learning process of public participation is needed for local councillors, mayors, local administration, local NGOs and the public to understand better and to be able to implement concrete public participation procedures on the local level.
NGOs need to elevate the level of functional specialization, cooperation and professionalism in order to be able to increase their efficiency in public participation. They need to overcome barriers of mentality and of an organizational character, and establish closer collaboration through networking and sharing resources and expertise. They need to be prepared to better utilize the existing and future legal avenues, legal tools, learn to combine the different instruments and implement good practices, innovative ways of public participation used in other countries of the region. In this regard establishment of legal assistance - a better communication and information network would be of utmost importance. NGOs also need to be more proactive in working together with the public, local communities, businesses as well as with the high level decisionmakers, the MPs and government officials.
Besides the need for independent "green" media, the need for training NGOs in communicating and dealing with media can be considered of strategic importance. Certainly, the NGOs should recognize the need to target not only political parties and politicians but, at the outset, mass media and public consciousness since in many cases the issues focused on by NGOs are challenging both the design of state institutions and the design of social identities - their roles and interests in civil society. NGOs are still predominantly targeting the state, i.e. MPs, party leaders, ministers and other officials. They should not stop targeting the media as soon they have made direct contacts with politicians and high officials.