A General Law on Environmental Protection has recently been approved by Parliament. A law on hazardous waste has been drafted and a law on environmental impact assessments is in the early stages of preparation. Laws on hunting and on forestry were developed in cooperation with other ministries and a law on fishing will appear soon.
More detailed elaboration of the General Law is necessary. Also, expansion of the staff and authority for enforcement of the law is a strong priority.
While environmental policy and law are not priority weaknesses, law enforcement certainly is. Enforcement is woefully insufficient due to: a lack of professional expertise and financial resources, and subjugation of environmental concerns to industrial and political goals.
Some legislative progress has been made: the draft of the environmental framework law has been prepared. Discussion has started in the Parliament and it will probably be adopted in 1994. This law will determine the general framework for all the specific laws and regulations in the field of environment. The new Law on nature protection was passed last year. NGOs and academic experts were invited to comment. The new framework law is considered to be a good start if adopted. EIAs are obligatory since 1990, relatively widely implemented and regulated by a specific regulation since 1984. The new framework law encompasses this in a broader concept and plans a new regulation on it. Proper political conditions and educated experts are needed to draft environmental laws that can actually be implemented. Croatia is party to a number of major international environmental conventions and treaties and the signing of some of them is expected. NGOs should play a watchdog role to enforce the implementation of new laws and international treaties and conventions. Since legislation is incomplete and efficient environmental infrastructure is missing, enforcement will be difficult.
In terms of the energy, transportation, agricultural, fiscal, and taxation policies, the Government scarcely takes environmental concerns into consideration. However, an expert noted that most of those policies are not officially approved yet and might be reformulated.
There has been a gradual tendency to slowly transfer power to the regions. Together with the Ministry of Economy, the MoE is preparing a regional environmental policy. The policy should clarify the responsibilities and authority of the regions.
Since 1990, almost the whole system of environmental legislation was replaced. The rapid adoption has resulted in some problems, e.g., discrepancies between environmental acts. Amendments and explanations to the laws have been necessary.
Some experts mentioned that because of the short deadline for compliance with the new strict regulations (5-7 years), often end of the pipe technologies have to be installed, which are costly and economically inefficient. They suggested to integrate more economic tools, so that businesses can find the optimal economic solution for the required environmental benefit.
There are major problems related to enforcement. The society doesn't tend to consider breaking the law as reprehensible or unethical. The people tend not to report the infractions of which they are aware. The enforcement institutions face problems mainly related to management. They are not developed sufficiently, understaffed, and have insufficient technical support with measurement equipment.
The Constitution of Hungary recognizes the right to a healthy environment. The Constitutional Court recently ruled that it is against the Constitution for the State to allow changes in nature or in the quality of environment representing setbacks from already achieved levels. The Court, and the ÒOmbudsmanÓ (an elected Speaker for Civil Rights) will have to guard environmental rights. The new environmental law, submitted during the spring 1994, will have to be reviewed and passed by the new Parliament. The work of harmonizing Hungarian legislation with that of the EU must go forward. At the same time, compliance monitoring and enforcement capabilities of the inspectorates will have to be improved. Incentives other than fines will have to be developed to motivate industrial compliance. Principles of public participation, right-to-know and freedom of information are appearing in legislation at various levels. They will have to be developed further and put into practice.
Improvements in environmental law are also a high priority as the country is currently without modern environmental legislation suitable for contemporary circumstances. The need for new environmental law is urgent as this should guide the development of new policies, standards and management methodologies. A new Environmental Law, based largely on the 1991 Strategy, has been drafted and is presently awaiting debate in Parliament. The draft law was formulated in consultation with many different groups, including scientists, businesses and NGOs, and has been accepted by the Government Administration. The draft law attempts to harmonize environmental standards with European norms.
Law enforcement is also very weak and in need of considerable improvement. One expert noted that the illegal activities of industry are almost entirely tolerated.
The environmental law is also generally considered as good, however certain improvements and amendments are required. Law enforcement is far from ideal. In some ways the strictness of existing laws obstructs enforcement as the laws are sometimes unrealistically stringent and do not allow for flexible solutions. Environmental monitoring is important for enforcement and current resources committed to the State Environmental Inspectorate should be greater.
Enforcement of existing laws is seriously lacking and this is perhaps an even greater priority than the enacting of new laws.
The main principle of the previous strategy, elaborated by the Slovak Commission for the Environment was the principle of 'ecologization' of the following: human awareness; legal and economic instruments; the organization of territory, and; production technology. Under the term ecologization, a cross-sectoral approach and an infiltration of environmental concerns into other areas was intended. The implementation turned out to be difficult.
Between 1990 and 1992, almost the whole system of environmental legislation was replaced. Several Acts are still under preparation, e.g., The Water Act, the Nature Protection Act, the EIA law, and the law on Risk Assessment.
As a result of the quick development of the new environmental law system and also because of constant and rapid changes in the structure of the economy, it is necessary to make amendments to the new acts. The integration with laws concerning other areas, for instance the economy, is insufficient.
Several significant problems exist in enforcement. Many companies can not pay the environmental fees and fines, most of the heavy industries are still state-owned. Usually no penalties are imposed if a company does not pay. There is a lack of options for enforcement. The technical support of the enforcement institutions is insufficient. Improving enforcement and compliance with the environmental law has been mentioned as high priority by most experts.
The first crucial steps have been taken towards passing new law. The basic framework law on environment has been adopted by the Parliament, but sectoral laws and regulations are still needed. Until these are adopted, methodologies and standards necessary to implement the law will not be elaborated. The sectoral regulations are essential for the framework law to function, but may take 3-4 years to establish. The concept of the framework law is good, but impossible to enforce due to the lack of a proper environmental infrastructure and administration. This structure is currently being improved. A crucial aspect of the law is implementation of EIA. The new framework law mandates this, but it is still not effectively used, despite its urgent need for the last few years.