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Environmental Assistance to Eastern Europe 2001 2 CommentsBy Erik Hoffmeyer, chairman of the Advisory Committee, former Governor of the Danish Central Bank In the calendar year of 2001 the Danish environmental assistance to countries in Eastern European continued and in certain countries in the former Soviet Union on a relatively high level. One should rejoice at the fact that preparation of country programmes played an increasingly more important role in the channelling of the assistance. In this way recipient countries were even more involved in determining which objectives should benefit from the available amounts. In this way, the possibility for singular projects spreading to other areas of the national economy are also increased. The Committee has had the opportunity to witness this in specific projects, including the often mentioned geothermal project in Zakopane, Poland. Furthermore, independent evaluations have confirmed that the administration of the means continues to be satisfactory. In the spring of 2002 the Danish Government decided on a widespread reduction in new grants for the bilateral assistance to countries in Eastern Europe - partly due to considerations that a larger part of the countries is assumed to become members of the EU in the next couple of years. This results in a substantial alteration in the design of the assistance programme, though it is still governed by the original goals.
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