Bulgaria's road to Accession
7 Conclusions and Perspectives
Bulgaria has achieved substantial progress in developing the legal framework on environmental protection during the last years. The country is likely to be able to meet its target of transposing all EU directives prior to 2000 before 2003. There is still a substantial part of the EU environmental regulation on industrial pollution control, chemicals control, genetically modified organisms and water quality management that needs to be introduced into national legislation. However, initiatives have been launched for developing the necessary legislation both with own and with international assistance from the EU Phare programme and with planned support from the Danish Ministry of the Environment.
Concerning the implementation of legal framework into practical administration carried out from national and regional executive bodies, Bulgaria has progressed. The Government recognises the demanding task of setting up systems for granting permits, monitoring inspection and enforcement of environmental regulation. A strategy for modernising the public administration strives to double the staff capacity at regional level already in 2003, and new units such as the River Basin Directorates are formed in line with EU directives. It should be noted that regulation of large industrial facilities according to the IPPC directive is not yet in place at field level. Also for other directives there is a need for substantial extra efforts before the practical regulation and enforcement is on par with that of the EU countries.
Thus, there is a demanding task ahead in developing the regulatory procedures, and forming and staffing the executive units. Bulgaria benefits from the ‘best practice modalities’ developed within EU countries and the professional networks that have been established in the development of monitoring and enforcement systems. There are no overall assessments of the effectiveness of the regulatory systems as of now, but it is found that without extraordinary activities it is less likely that the administration will be on par with that of other EU countries by 2007. There is a need for upgrading analytical apparatus, setting administrative practices in place and training of planners and inspectors. Also there is a need for an extra effort in linking Bulgarian inspection and monitoring bodies up to pan-European professional networks to ensure performance according to EU standards.
Bulgaria is going to spend a higher share of its national income on private and public investments on meeting the new and stricter requirements as compared to most other candidate countries. The public sector spending is estimated to amount to 6.7 per cent of the GDP if all investments are completed by 2015. The environmental investments are hampered by the public spending restrictions imposed by the currency board arrangement and by the low affordability to pay for the services by households of Bulgaria’s regions.
Implementation of some of the directives requires substantial investments that will be impossible for Bulgaria to acquire within the coming four years. An agreement with the EU Commission has therefore been entered that allow for additional transitional periods until 2010 and 2015. The conditions are that Bulgaria presents action plans with realistic implementation plans and financing strategies. Transitional periods have been requested for the following directives:
 | Sulphur content of liquid fuels |
| VOC emissions from storage of petrol |
| VOC emissions from solvents |
| Packaging & packaging waste |
| Landfill of waste |
| Urban waste water treatment |
| Discharge of certain dangerous substances |
| Integrated industrial pollution prevention and control |
Action plans are under preparation and implementation has started, but at an inadequate pace. As an example the target is to construct some 300 wastewater treatment plants, but during the last three years the construction of only ten plants has started.
The similar pattern is acknowledged for landfilling of waste. Some 14 facilities have either been constructed or are under construction currently compared with a target of at least 56 regional landfills for household waste. A plan for establishing a national and regional network of treatment and deposit facilities for hazardous waste has not been approved yet.
The Danish Ministry of the Environment and other bilateral donors have promoted the implementation of the directives by establishing demonstration facilities and preparing feasibility studies for the EU ISPA and other programmes. However, cumbersome procedures sometimes combined with changing priorities have delayed the use of these funds. After four years of operation the contractual arrangements are finally prepared for starting the construction work of the first ISPA project. There is therefore a further need to improve the planning of investment projects by setting up better project pipelines and to prepare the project technically through feasibility studies. The Bulgarian Government has addressed the issue by expanding the ISPA offices at the two responsible ministries, but it is likely that further technical assistance in speeding their operations up is required from donors.
The private sector investments in industrial pollution prevention and control are also a major challenge. Three – four hundred larger industrial facilities are to be subject to integrated permits regulating emissions to air, water, and soil. Until now only five permits are prepared on a pilot basis, and a unit for issuing permits has just been formed. The challenge is to establish the full administrative capacity on the one side and on the other side to mobilise private sector investments into the required remediation activities. The Bulgarian Government and business sector is addressing the problems, but the compliance will be costly for many plants and even too costly for other plants. The national refinery, as an example, is going to be fully replaced if the stricter standards to sulphur content in fuels are to be implemented. The investments for this plant alone amounts to Euro 1.5 billion. It is therefore likely that the implementation of industrial pollution requirements will spur the phasing out of old industries causing both economic and social problems if not compensated.
The EU Commission’s position is that transitional periods can only be granted if these are based on realistic action plans that take the availability of financial resources and implementation capacity into account. The Bulgarian Government is currently in the process of updating the cost estimates. However, there is an immediate need for preparing action programmes for the investment heavy directives with realistic financing and attainable goals. It is found that full compliance within a 12-year period requires effectively prepared projects combined with mobilisation of both national and international financing resources.
The horizontal planning at municipal and regional level needs also to be strengthened in order to promote local government and also to ensure better cross-sector prioritisation between different national action programmes.
The socio-economic standing of the country and especially the low capacity by domestic users to finance the investments has to be taken into account along with the relatively old stock of technologies in the manufacturing and processing industry. Therefore there is a need for promoting cost-effective technologies. Also, there is a need to turn the financial instruments such as ISPA into a more flexible instrument and to strengthen the planning and preparation of the concrete investments.
Several studies point to the fact that the cost of complying with the EU environmental legislation is a high burden on the Bulgarian economy compared with other accession countries. At the same time studies show that the environmental benefits are also among the highest. Therefore there is good sense in placing many efforts in meeting the EU requirements from a Bulgarian perspective.
The present member states will also have a direct stake in Bulgaria’s compliance with EU environmental requirements. The direct positive effects are related to reducing trans-boundary pollution. However, when Bulgaria enters into the EU it becomes part of the decentralised EU system for environmental protection management. There is a risk that lower de factor standards may emerge within the Union if Bulgaria will not be able to meet the stricter EU standards. This may in turn imply that Bulgaria will have to opt for lower EU standards given the potential backlog on environmental performance. Thus, there is an interest from member states to ensure and assist Bulgaria in being able to comply with the EU directives by the date of accession and with as few exemptions as possible.
It is foreseen that bilateral assistance during the remaining pre-accession period can continue to play a significant role. DANCEE and similar programmes have proven able to catalyse the process of reaching EU compliance by providing flexible and risk-based support that complements the large-scale support programmes provided by the Bulgarians themselves as well as the EU Commission and international financing institutions.