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Environmental Assistance to Eastern Europe 2001 1 IntroductionBy Hans Christian Schmidt, the Danish Minister of the Environment The present accession process for Poland and Hungary began with the signing of their Europe Agreements in 1991 and later similar agreements were signed by eight other Central and Eastern European countries. The negotiations with the countries began formally in 1998, and environmental requirements were part of the 31 sectors where the countries should evaluate their own legislating, their own administrative systems and manning plus the environmental infrastructure in relation to EU's requirements and estimate the need for interim arrangements after admission to the EU. For eight out of ten Eastern European candidate countries for the EU the environmental issues will not be ground for problems in connection with negotiations on membership of the EU. At this point, eight out of ten Eastern European countries have closed the chapter on environment with interim arrangements primarily founded in a great need for economic means of their own for the establishment of an environmental infrastructure, especially in the water and waste sectors. Two countries, Romania and Bulgaria showed progress in the negotiations but still lack some to close the chapter on environment. The approximation process to EU, however, has not just been a process of documents and meeting. The majority of the candidate countries have considerably increased their use of own means in the environmental sector, and based on the gross domestic product more countries are now on or above the level of countries within the EU. Also, a considerable reduction in pollution in the candidate countries has occurred, partly because much polluting industry has been closed down an partly because of investments in the cleaning process and improved technology. The highly polluted area - the so-called 'Black Triangle' between Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany has seen substantial reductions in air, water and ground pollution, reductions that have had a positive effect on the health of many people living and working in this region. In 2001, Denmark supported with a special effort the decommissioning of unsafe nuclear power stations in countries like Lithuania, Bulgaria and Slovakia, now a prerequisite for these countries' admission to the EU. The insistence on high environmental requirements for the candidate countries will, undoubtedly, result in improved environmental conditions and health not only in the candidate countries but in all of Europe as well. The co-operation on environmental issues with former Soviet republics and especially Russia, plus the countries in the western part of the Balkans has contributed further to this. The Danish environmental assistance to Eastern Europe commenced in 1991 and therefore 2001 marks a ten-year anniversary. From 1991 to 2001, Denmark has supported more than 1,400 projects in Eastern Europe. The assistance to the candidate countries - the majority - has been aimed to help the countries in their admission negotiations. Over the years there has been a need for experts in environmental legislation and setting up administrative systems, economists for analysis of financing of environmental infrastructure, engineers to design sewage treatment plants and contractors to build these, and finally suppliers of environmental equipment. All of this has contributed in bringing the countries to their current state. At the end of 2001 an analysis was initiated on the total Danish Assistance to Eastern Europe, including the environmental assistance. The total assistance to new projects in Eastern Europe was fixed at DKK 1.1 billion in 2002 and 2003, including DKK 700 million for environmental assistance. As mentioned, the reason the strategy only covers two years, is that a number of Central and Eastern European countries are expected to join the EU in 2004. During the fall of 2002 and spring of 2003 the government will conduct an analysis of the international efforts after 2003.
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