A dream come thue, a mission still ahead! By Jernej Stritih ALL FOR ONE: Leaders from the EU offered formal invitations to candidate countries at the EU summit in Copenhagen in December.

Photo: REUTERS/ LASZLO BALOGH

There's an old Chinese curse: "May all your wishes come true!" The closure of EU negotiations can be seen as fulfilment of a 13-year-old dream for all of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It is no surprise that some officials in candidate states felt a certain emptiness after the Copenhagen decision. The question suddenly emerged: "What now?". The answer is obvious, although not simple. The situation and the momentum gained over the past decade present a major opportunity for further progress toward sustainable development and creating a strong role for the new member states in the EU. Joining the EU is just a step forward in the region's global mission - sustainability and harmony with nature. In December, on a lucky Friday the 13th, the European Council marked the end of membership negotiations for 10 candidate countries:the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia are scheduled to enter the EU as full members on May 1, 2004. Bulgaria and Romania are scheduled to follow in 2007, and formal negotiations with Turkey will be considered at the end of 2004. In the process of negotiating for EU membership, the CEE countries implemented a wide range of profound reforms, including the approximation of their environmental legislation and institutions to the EU. The region's environmental sector reaped handsome rewards from the transfer of knowledge, financial support and political motivation from the EU. The environment, despite the high costs of implementing some EU directives, has been one of the leading sectors in the introduction of EU standards, a fact demonstrated by the membership of candidate countries in the European Environment Agency in 2001. It is safe to say that the drive for EU membership has also been the driving force for environmental improvement in this region. The last decade of reform in CEE represents one of the fastest and most successful ecological campaigns ever. New legislation, large investments and new institutions were easy to justify with EU accession at stake. The countries wasted little time setting objectives: they were already laid out in the EU acquis communataure - the union's legal norms and regulations. Neither did the EU aspirants have to worry about how to carry out their plans; many of these problems were solved by consultants provided by EU donor programmes such as Phare. From May 2004 the new member states will sit as equals at the EU table. They will face judicial action by the EU Commission if they don't comply with the acquis. They will be expected to contribute their initiative, analyses, proposals and positions in forming and implementing environmental policy. Regarding the matter of sustainable development, they will be jumping on a fast train of decision-making, and they will have to be prepared with their analyses and positions if they want to take part. A part from the inter-governmental conference on the new EU constitution, one of the first major negotiations between 2004 and 2006 will be on the next budget framework of the EU. This will have a fundamental effect on the funding for new members and, more importantly, the structural impact of these funds. The debate will be linked with the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which has a major impact on the environment and whose reform was recently postponed in Copenhagen for the umpteenth time. The decisions about Structural and Cohesion funds will determine the size of investments in social capital and infrastructure and set priorities for education, transport and environmental infrastructure and more. These decisions provide an unprecedented opportunity for integration of sus- tainability into different sectors and to organise development in general in a sustainable manner. The new member states have this chance because of their lower level of economic development and wealth of choices. Agricultural policy and transport provide the most striking examples. Next Page »

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