At this May's ministerial conference in Ukraine, policy makers will take stock of 12 years of work to improve the environment in Central and Eastern Europe. Many tasks remain in this region, even as eight CEE countries ready for European Union entry. But without question, Kiev will be a juncture where ministers will redirect much of their regional funding eastward. By Helena Cizkova   Photo: EPA PHOTO/CTK/JAROSLAV SYBEK/EUROPEAN COMMISSION LONG VIEW: This watery landscape in southern Bohemia has been designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a biosphere reserve. Now a rich fishing district, in the last century, it was subject to extensive forest clearing and the building of canals. A pan-European campaign to improve the environment will mark its 12th anniversary at the fifth Environment for Europe conference in May. In Kiev, European ministers of environment will take account of lessons learned and determine the process's future direction. With the imminent accession into the European Union (EU)of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), international aid for environmental action programming will now be directed further east, to countries where economic and social progress lags behind. Having already learned lessons during its transformation, the CEE is ready to offer knowledge and support. The last decade of the 20th century began with many political and economic changes in Europe. Countries in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) began a new period of development - from dictatorship to democracy, from central planning to the free market. One of the most urgent tasks accompanying these changes was to improve the state of the environment and reduce risks from pollution to human health. In the early 1990s, the environment ranked highly on the political agendas of the transition countries. The wish for an international forum to address pressing environmental problems and to contribute to an "environmentally safe Europe" inspired Josef Vavrousek, the first environmental minister of then Czechoslovakia, to organise the first meeting of environmental ministers from the UN-ECE region, held in Dobris in1991. This conference marked the starting point for long-term international work based on a common approach to environmental protection. Behind it all were the ideas of prevention and precaution, the polluter-pays principle, and the concept of shared responsibility for the environment. Dobris highlighted the need for systematic, pan-European cooperation and called for the development of a continental environmental strategy to achieve not only improvements to the environment and human health, but also the inclusion of environmental considerations into the process of economic transition in CEE. Environmental concerns, it was agreed, should figure into all forms of assistance provided to these countries. The conference in the Dobris Castle mattered not only because it was the first in a process, but also because it set goals which continue to guide policies in all the UN-ECE countries. The follow-up Environment for Europe Conference, held in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1993, responded to the needs expressed in Dobris. Delegates aimed to create harmonised environmental policies for all UN-ECE countries, taking into account national conditions and the needs of the individual countries. To address the specific needs of countries in transition, the framework document "The Environmental Action Programme (EAP)for Central and Eastern Europe" was endorsed as a basis for broad cooperation. The EAP aimed to integrate environmental concerns into economic transition, institutional and capacity building, and investments addressing priority environmental and health problems. To facilitate the implementation of the EAP, the Task Force and the Project Preparation Committee (PPC)were established. The Lucerne Conference was essentially an invitation for all countries, international organisations, financial institutions and other partners to join in a coordinated approach to solving environmental problems within the region, with a specific emphasis on Central and Eastern Europe. After an interim period in which the EAP began to be implemented, the third Environment for Europe Conference, held in 1995 in Sofia, Bulgaria, reaffirmed the approach agreed upon in Dobris and Lucerne, but set the stage for even stronger efforts to integrate environmental concerns into sectoral policies. Sofia's importance was twofold:First, many CEE countries took their first serious steps towards EU accession (and the EAP was helped along to address this fact), and second, they recognised the increasing role of co-operation between each other and launched activities in this spirit - a package dubbed the "Sofia Initiatives." Delegates settled on a long-term Environmental Programme for Europe (EPE), aimed chiefly at strengthening policies for environmental management. This included further development and use of economic and fiscal instruments for environmental protection and the establishment of systematic monitoring of progress toward this goal by individual countries (environmental performance reviews). The fourth Environment for Europe Conference, held in Aarhus, Denmark, in 1998, enhanced democracy and strengthened the role of the general public in the drive to improve the environment and human health. The UN-ECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters was opened for signing and a special session was organised by environmental NGOs, one that henceforth would be a regular part of these conferences. The Aarhus Conference also recognised the progress that CEE countries had made toward EU integration, and therefore called for stronger support from the Environment for Europe process to the Newly Independent States and those nations that were not involved in EU enlargement. Now, we are approaching event number five, to be held May 21-23 in Ukraine. The Kiev conference is expected not only to evaluate the progress to date, but more importantly, to determine the future for the Environment for Europe process. Do we still need it?And if so, what shape should it take?First, we need to ask whether the Environmental Programme for Europe has finished its work. To be sure, many of its tasks have, including: the writing of periodic pan-European assessment reports on the state of the environment; the publishing of several useful and widely praised reports on the environmental performance of countries in transition; the signing of regional and sub- regional legally binding instruments (including the Aarhus Convention); the creation of policy tools such as the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy, the Policy Statement on Energy efficiency, the Guidelines on Energy Conservation in Europe, the Strategy to Phase out Leaded Petrol and other guidelines; and an impressive set of outcomes from the EAP Task Force Programme of Work (including the National Environmental Action Plans adopted by many countries in transition)and projects supported by the Project Preparation Committee; and the establishment of regional environmental centres in the EECCA region. The process has created a unique continent-wide framework for negotiating policy development and implementing priority environmental issues. Compacts have been agreed upon between national governments. The EAP has provided common grounds for the work of all environmental stakeholders - governments, NGOs, the media, international organisations, businesses and the REC. This enabled combined efforts that had a profound effect on policy development. As EU accession became a driving force for the development of this region, an effective synergy emerged with the drive to improve the environment. Despite this, much remains unsolved. Many environmental problems persist which require urgent action, and new challenges have emerged. Countries still need to strengthen their capacities to implement and develop domestic and international environmental policies, ones that would serve as an "environmental pillar of sustainable development." There is still much work to be done in the area of environmental financing, specifically in countries with economies in transition. There remain gaps in data collection, monitoring and reporting. Environmental governance needs to be improved both at the national and regional levels. The integration of environmental and health concerns into other sectors is lacking. In addition, worrying trends have arisen: increasing sub-regional differences, a casual attitude toward sustainable development and insufficient efforts to involve all stakeholders. These challenges cannot be addressed without intensified international cooperation. As the Environment for Europe process is the only pan-European environ- mental forum that can do this, it is still needed. To continue to be effective, it should be adjusted to the new situation. The process should remain regional in scope, but take into account specific subregional conditions, including the serious environmental situation in EECCA, the continued environmental reconstruction in South-Eastern Europe and the demanding tasks in the environmental protection and management of natural resources in the new EU countries. The countries of these regions need to avoid the unsustainable consumption and production patterns of Western Europe and North America. Strategic and institutional tools such as the EAP, the EAP Task Force and the PPC should be adjusted to encourage more focused, effective multilateral and bilateral cooperation in addressing the most urgent problems EECCA. "East to East" transfer of know-how should play a unique and important role in this respect. Much higher attention should be paid to implementing legal commitments both at the international and local levels. The capacities of institutions and personnel working in environmental enforcement and compliance should be strengthened and data collection, monitoring and reporting should be harmonised and improved, even if this will be a costly undertaking. Environmental and health concerns should be better integrated into sectoral policy, with the goal of encouraging economic development that doesn't impinge on the environment or have unwanted socioeconomic impacts. To achieve that, better communication needs to be established with other international organisations and the players in pan-European processes concerning the environment, health and transport. The private sector should be more involved in such discussions. The traditional model of providing assistance should be replaced with one that involves the sharing of experience, education, training, awareness raising and a bias toward economically feasible and environmentally wise solutions. The "Environment for Europe" should help countries in transition tackle their environmental problems more efficiently. This may be the most important message of the Kiev Conference and the best response to the questions asked above.  - Helena Cizkova is the deputy director of the International Relations Department at the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic and a member of the bureau of the UNECE Committee on Environmental Policy

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