Environmental Assistance to Eastern Europa - Annual Report 1998 1. Introduction1. IntroductionBy the Danish Minister for Environment and Energy, Svend Auken Perspectives for Danish environmental assistance in Eastern EuropeDanish environmental assistance should be seen in an international perspective. Only if the environmental assistance we provide is offered in close co-operation with the individual countries and only if we are open to the development in the potential of these countries and are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of other donor countries and of the international financial institutions, will our environmental assistance succeed. Fortunately, an external assessment of Danish environmental assistance in Eastern Europe shows that we are on the right track.[1] The Eastern and Central European applicant countries’ EU accession has come to dominate the European agenda more and more and thus also Danish environmental assistance. The applicant countries have undertaken to accept the EU’s political objectives and to implement EU environmental legislation. This explains why Danish environmental assistance to these countries is increasingly being focused on enabling the applicant countries to live up to EU environmental standards. Even today, close to half of the Danish environmental assistance to Eastern Europe is aimed at EU approximation, and in the years to come, the experience of Danish environmental management at national, regional and local levels will increasingly be passed on to the Eastern countries with a view to strengthening their own institutions. Future EU membership is an important driving force behind the steps taken by these countries, and on our part, we shall contribute to furthering the process as much as possible by assisting the EU applicant countries in identifying good environmental projects and ensuring an optimal utilization of the substantial EU resources set aside for the approximation process. At the same time, the difference in environmental efforts between especially the applicant countries and those countries that are not applying for membership is becoming more and more conspicuous. There is a real risk that a new environmental iron curtain is about to be lowered between the enlarged EU and the rest of Europe. Therefore, the next very great challenge facing us will be to ensure environmental integration of Russia, Ukraine and the other former Soviet republics. The environmental assistance we can offer can contribute greatly to improving the co-operation between the Central European countries and the states further east that will also have to fulfil their environmental obligations. Many of the countries in Eastern Europe have signed the same international agreements as Denmark, and by means of the environmental assistance, we can help them live up to the agreements. This is the way the pan-European environmental process is developing, and Danish assistance will steer the same course. But Denmark has to co-operate not only with the individual recipient countries. We have to continue to participate in international environmental co-operation as well, for only in that way can we have any influence on the environmental development process in the East as well as in the West to the benefit of the environment in Europe. We participate actively in the international environmental co-operation on Eastern Europe by cooperating with the EU, the OECD, the UN and international financial institutions. Furthermore, we participate in the Baltic co-operation and in the Nordic environmental co-operation. Through this co-operation, we will continue to play an active role in putting the environment on the agenda in Eastern Europe. Danish environmental assistance should be seen in this perspective. Environmental assistance under scrutinyBy the Danish Minister for Environment and Energy, Svend Auken [2] An external assessment of Danish environmental assistance to Eastern Europe shows that the money seems to be well spent. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and as the other Communist countries fell apart over the following years, the new era was bid welcome. A dark chapter in the history of Europe had been brought to an end, a period when the Europeans had been kept separated from each other and when basic human rights had been suppressed in one half of Europe. The joy and expectations surrounding the new possibilities that were suddenly opening up were enormous, but at the same time, it was recognised that the task would be extremely difficult in many ways. The new countries would have to be helped on in a number of areas if they were to get back on their feet again. One of the areas where the Danish Folketing decided to make an effort in connection with the assistance to CEEC, the former Communist countries in Eastern and Central Europe, was in the area of environmental assistance. Part of this assistance has now been assessed, viz. the so-called DESF facility (Danish Environmental Support Fund for Eastern Europe) administered by DEPA, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency. In July 1977, DEPA initiated an external assessment of the DESF facility, covering the period from its launch in 1991 until the end of 1996. The assessment was carried out by Associate Professor Mikael Skou Andersen from Aarhus University in co-operation with PLS Consult and KPMG C. Jespersen. The assessment team interviewed all Danish project contractors. Besides, 47 selected projects have been analysed in detail, and the team has visited eight out of the twelve co-operation countries in Eastern Europe and interviewed authorities, stakeholders and independent experts. In the assessment of the 47 projects, 35 of the projects are characterised as satisfactory or very satisfactory, eight as less satisfactory and four as unsatisfactory. After some teething troubles during the first few years of the support facility, we are pleased to note that so many of the projects are assessed in very positive terms and that the assessment team concludes that Danish environmental assistance has now found a satisfactory form. In a number of areas, the assessment comes up with some interesting recommendations for our work in the coming years. I do not intend to go into detail with the results of the assessment here, but would like to mention just one of the recommendations, viz. that we have to improve our ability to measure the actual environmental impacts of the projects. Of course, the recommendations made in the assessment will be taken into account in the continuous adjustment of the Ministry’s efforts and measures in this area. But the report gives rise to a number of immediate comments on the future perspectives for Danish environmental assistance to Eastern Europe. Things are developing very rapidly and require that we continuously adjust our environmental assistance. We should therefore keep in mind that the assessment comprises only the period up to and including 1996 and that it is based on bilateral assistance to the individual recipient countries. Denmark co-operates not only with the individual recipient countries. We are active participants in international environmental co-operation on Eastern Europe, co-operating with the EU, the OECD, the UN and with the international financial institutions; we participate in the Baltic co-operation, in the Nordic environmental co-operation, etc. Being the largest bilateral donor – absolutely and in relation to the number of inhabitants – Denmark has played an active role through this co-operation in putting the environment on the agenda in Eastern Europe. One sign of this is that Danish environmental projects in Eastern Europe have acted as catalysts for the granting of loans by international financial institutions of up to DKK 6 Bn for environmental purposes in these countries and that the countries of their own accord have chosen to co-finance an impressive part of the project costs. The projects have also led to a substantial export of Danish environmental technology. We intend to continue this international environmental co-operation, for only in this way can we influence the environmental development process in the East as well as the West to the benefit of the environment in Europe. In that connection, the fourth Pan-European Conference of Environment Ministers in Aarhus in June was an important milestone, and the environmental support scheme should be seen in this context. Among the most important results achieved in Aarhus was the signing of the Publicity Convention, also called the Aarhus Convention, on citizens’ environmental rights. The Convention is going to mean a significant extension of ordinary citizens’ and grass-root movements’ access to influencing environmental policy decisions; to most countries it represents a great challenge, and Danish environmental assistance ought to contribute to implementing this Convention in Eastern Europe. Also the two new air pollution protocols (one on heavy metals and the other on persistent organic pollutants) and the adoption of a strategy for the phasing out of leaded petrol in all of Europe were important measures taken at the Conference to ensure adoption of a decision to phase out leaded petrol in the vast majority of the countries much faster than originally laid down in the Heavy Metal Protocol. Denmark has supported the preparation of national phase-out plans for leaded petrol in a number of Eastern European countries and will continue to assist the countries in finding a solution to this serious environmental problem as quickly as possible. A parallel example is the Danish assistance to Eastern European countries to help them comply with the Montreal protocol on the phasing out of ozone-depleting substances. A Danish grant of only DKK 10 million for the preparation of national action plans has paved the way for a donation of DKK 700 m from the Global Environmental Facility to cover the Eastern European countries’ additional costs of converting their refrigerator factories and other CFC-using industries to CFC-free technology. This assistance has in fact contributed to eliminating 20% of the world’s total consumption of ozone-depleting substances. But the Aarhus Conference also showed that there is still a long way to go before environmental considerations become an integrated part of sector policies, e.g. within the energy, agriculture and transport sectors. I believe that we ought to strengthen sector-integrated environmental assistance and that protection of the vast natural resources in Eastern Europe is a task to be prioritised more and more highly. In that connection, I should like to single out the Baltic initiative, where countries around the Baltic Sea are working to create a regional Agenda 21 for the Baltic countries with sustainable development for a number of sectors including energy, agriculture, transport and forestry. It is becoming more and more important to see Danish environmental assistance in an international perspective and in conjunction with the individual countries’ own possibilities and with the strengths and weaknesses of the other donor countries and of the international financial institutions. We must preserve the flexibility of the Danish scheme – for one reason because the differentiation between the countries has become greater, ie between the applicant countries and the countries not applying for membership of the EU, between first-and second-phase applicant countries, between countries in the North and in the South, between “old” countries and new countries, including the Central Asian republics and the former Yugoslavia, between democracies and countries where democracy continues under extremely difficult conditions. Over the coming years, the Eastern European applicant countries’ admission to the EU will greatly influence the European agenda. These Eastern countries have committed themselves to accepting the EU’s political objectives and to implementing EU environmental legislation. Consequently, it is important that Danish assistance in these countries is targeted at the EU’s environmental requirements and that we pass on the Danish experience of environmental administration at a national, regional and local level to the greatest possible extent with a view to strengthening the Eastern countries’ own institutions. In our day-to-day co-operation with the Eastern countries, we experience that their future membership of the EU is an important driving force for their environmental initiatives. We must expect considerable environmental gains once the countries are able to comply effectively with the EU’s environmental requirements, and Denmark can contribute to furthering this process as much as possible. And we have to take advantage of our flexibility to assist the EU approximation countries in identifying good environmental projects and ensure optimal utilization of the substantial EU resources earmarked for the approximation process. Countries in Central Europe are being hitched to the environmental policy wagon, and so far, Western Europe has concentrated mainly on those countries. The next challenge will be the environmental integration of Russia, Ukraine and the other former Soviet republics. We must strive for closer co-operation between the countries of Central Europe and the states further east, which must also be enabled to fulfil their environmental obligations. This is the way the pan-European environmental process is developing and that is the course we should steer. In September of this year, the Advisory Committee to the Danish Environmental Support Fund for Eastern Europe visited Russia. On this occasion, the members got a first-hand impression of the serious environmental and economic problems facing the country. Here, as well as in the other Russian-speaking countries, environmental problems directly affect public health. Just six months ago, we believed that despite great difficulties, economic stabilization had come to stay in Russia, but the IMF now expects a fall in the country’s gross domestic product of 6% for 1998, and we have probably seen only the top of the iceberg. As a result of the economic crisis in Russia, it will become even more difficult to procure the necessary national co-financing of environmental projects, and the crisis also affects the other Eastern European countries. But we have an obligation to continue to help Russia and the other former Soviet republics – for the sake of people’s health, for the sake of the environment locally and globally and last – but not least – for the sake of bringing about the security we all desire. Notes:
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