Preface

Executive Summary

Introduction

Country Report - Romania

Country Report - Ukraine

Country Report - Slovakia

Country Report - Hungary

Country Report - Yugoslavia

Annexes, appendices, references

 


    

 

Recognised needs for sustainable development

Environmental governance

The improvement of environmental governance, e.g. enforcement of relevant legislation, decision-making process, public involvement, quality of existing strategies, was seen as one of the most pronounced needs. Imprecisely defined competences of the Federation and member republics (Republic of Serbia with Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in the case of the Tisa watershed), insufficient capacity of relevant government bodies/institutions, poor equipment in these institutions and the absence of integrated water resource management are listed as main problems in the institutional sector.

The Current state is characterised by laws governing this field that are obsolete and not efficient. Furthermore, the enforcement of present legislation is rather weak. The "polluter pay" principle is not enforced. The Serbian Directorate for Environmental Protection initiated the adoption of the new Law on the System of Environmental Protection, which is expected in the first half of 2002. Adopting a new law that would precisely define competences among government stakeholders, establishing an Environmental Protection Agency, technical capacity-building of state institutions and the introduction of integrated water resource management measures are some of the initiatives suggested to overcome the problems mentioned. The new law should be followed by sectoral laws, including Water Law. This phase is expected to occur in the second half of 2002 and the first half of 2003. In parallel, capacity-building of enforcement agencies (inspectorates), which already started within framework of Regional Environmental Reconstruction Programme (REReP), will improve the enforcement of relevant legislation.

An additional problem represents the fact that regulations are not fully harmonised within the state. The announced reshaping of the Yugoslav Federation represents a precondition for the harmonisation of relevant legislation. On the other hand, local legislation is not harmonised with relevant EU legislation (e.g. Water Framework Directive). It is expected that the Country Office Yugoslavia of the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC), as a part of an international consortium, will start the implementation of three-year programme of harmonising local and EU environmental legislation, by the beginning of May 2002.

The quality of existing strategies is limited by not clearly defined competences among government stakeholders. At the moment, six different ministries and government bodies are responsible for environmental protection. The concentration of competences and the establishment of the implementation agency for environmental protection represent preconditions for improvement in this field.

The lack of special environmental protection funds and not fully elaborated management and finance mechanisms represent significant constraints for sustainable development in the Tisa watershed area. One of the most important issues that should be addressed during the first phase is the inadequate price of resources.

It is also concluded that the present system of monitoring is not integrated and that it is realised using obsolete equipment with staff that are not fully trained. Monitoring measurement programmes are not fully harmonised with relevant EU standards. The planning of an integrated monitoring system, renovation, staff training and the harmonisation of relevant programmes with EU standards are methods suggested for overcoming these problems.

The main point of departure for common European policy is the absence of any requirements for public participation and access to information in the environmental assessment and decision-making processes in current regulations of FR Yugoslavia. However, several activities have recently been launched in order to lobby for the adoption of the Aarhus Convention (Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters). Cooperation between government and NGOs has started to improve since democratic changes in Yugoslavia. However, the present situation is characterised by poor expert capacities in most of the NGOs in the region and insufficient information on the obligations of state authorities yielded from relevant legislation. Weak NGO participation in recognising and addressing environmental problems in the Tisa watershed area in FR Yugoslavia is also caused by the as yet undefined status of NGOs in FR Yugoslavia, and the large number of not connected/networked NGOs in the region. Current initiatives for NGO networking, supported by different donors, will strengthen NGOs' position and improve civil society participation in the decision-making process.

Recognised needs

During the first national workshop, which was held in Becej municipality on February 20, the following needs were identified in the Tisa watershed in Yugoslavia:

  • Providing sufficient quantities of water of necessary quality for water supply systems
  • Upgrading water supply and sewerage systems
  • Revitalising channel network (for irrigation and drainage) and wetlands
  • Updating existing cadastres of polluters of ground and surface waters
  • Monitoring ground and surface waters
  • Supporting projects for wastewater purification
  • Providing regional waste management (solid wastes) and introducing recycling procedures
  • Harmonising domestic regulations on criteria for classification of polluters and permitted levels of pollution with international ones
  • Providing environmental education for local people
  • Building capacity of local stakeholders
  • Controlling extensive agriculture
  • Cleaning energy production

During the second national workshop, which was held in Kanjiža municipality on March 21, the needs in the Tisa watershed in Yugoslavia that were recognised during first workshop were confirmed. Several other needs were raised in addition during plenary discussion:

  • Organic food production
  • Wetlands revitalisation
  • Afforestation
  • Flood protection
  • Hydro-technical works in order to improve navigation and river traffic
  • Improved crossborder cooperation

The needs that have to be addressed are reflected in project concepts proposed by different stakeholders during project implementation.

© 2002 The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe and Tisza-Szamos Public Benefit Company