Vera Mora is not impressed with the Environment for Europe process, even though she is a Hungarian member of the European Youth Forest Action, an environmental network with members all over Europe.
"I find it simply boring," she complained in a recent phone interview with The Bulletin. "I belong to a circle of NGOs more concerned with issues in my own environs which are brought about by everyday problems."
She is not alone. Mora is just one of a number of NGO members across Central and Eastern Europe who are finding the Environmental Action Plan for Central and Eastern Europe (EAP) process increasingly problematic. Mora says the process appears to have very little to do with her NGO or the practical environmental problems in her area. Other NGOs feel that the EAP process is too abstract, too slow, and is lacking the activist's practical approach to environmental problems. While some NGOs are interested, many do not know or care much about the Environment for Europe process.
In principle, the EAP encourages NGOs to get more involved in the creation of the National Environmental Action Plans (NEAPs) that every minister at the Lucerne conference implicitly agreed to write (a detail most seem to have forgotten). NGO involvement gives the process a popular base in the Region. It also "gives NGOs a good opportunity to participate in policy making at a national level," says Ewout van der Weij, who works for Milieukontakt Oost Europa, an NGO working on environmental issues in Central and Eastern Europe. But the reality is actually far different.
"Even if it brings change, it will come very slowly. You can achieve more by using other channels," Mora says.
Ideally, NEAPs should provide concrete plans for environmental action based on the most urgent environmental priorities and the government's resources. But the distinct problems associated with developing NEAPs "have made the step to a NEAP useless," says van der Weij. In the Czech Republic, the government hasn't yet introduced the initial steps necessary to prepare a NEAP, as agreed upon in Lucerne, such as holding an EAP seminar to inform environmentalists about EAP issues. NGOs, therefore, can't begin to help the government develop a NEAP if the government can't even agree on a broad environmental strategy, let alone a concrete action plan such as a NEAP. Similar problems also exist in other countries.
Political problems also weaken the process. At Milieukontakt Oost Europa, van der Weij tries to get NGOs throughout Europe involved in the Environment for Europe process. But he points out that government inaction has made it hard for NGOs to get enthusiastic about the Environment for Europe process. Ministries of environment in Central and Eastern Europe do not have the power to push the EAP forward, and governments in the midst of ongoing economic problems lack the political will to get involved.
A lack of continuity in government ministries is also an obstacle facing regional NGOs. Effective NEAP development requires a long-term focus and significant cooperation among governments and NGOs, and this lack of continuity makes NGOs reluctant to expend their energy developing NEAPs. Bulgaria, for example, has had seven governments since the political and economic changes in 1989, a situation that has significantly stalled NGO involvement in the Bulgarian NEAP process.
"Unfortunately, the number of changes with the people involved in these institutions is very high. It hurts the EAP process. You don't always have a stable dialogue," says Kliment Mindjov of Borrowed Nature, the Bulgarian NGO operating as the "NGO Focal Point" for the Sofia Ministers' Conference to be held in October.
"Somehow it's helping NGOs and governments cooperate. In making an announcement of what the government's steps will be, NGOs are able to prepare. From this it is possible to collaborate, cooperate and discuss environmental priorities," Mindjov says.
Mindjov believes NGO interest is increasing as the NEAP process develops, especially among NGOs that work on multiple issues, deal with environmental policy, or are more global in focus. He may be right. The National Society of Conservationists, an NGO in Hungary, is involved in coordinating NGOs that are preparing different parts of an NEAP to be given to the Hungarian government in September. This umbrella system gets more NGOs involved in the process and unifies their efforts, something that is especially helpful in a country where a lack of dialogue in a diverse community of NGOs is a problem.
"It's a good opportunity for Hungarian NGOs to discuss our thoughts. There are many local and regional NGOs thinking in different ways. It gives us an opportunity to talk about strategic questions," says Erzsebet Schmuck of the Conservationists.
In the end, the Environment for Europe process will only be what people make of it. "NGOs can help in making and shaping environmental policies of the future," says van der Weij, "as long as the ministers and governments take it seriously, of course. But that's the problem."