S O F I A  R E P O R T

• The No Nukes Club. Because the Ministerial Declaration had to be approved by a consensus vote, the issue of nuclear energy was a difficult one to manage. For that reason, diehard nuclear opponents added an emphatic footnote: "Austria, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg and Sweden reaffirm their position that the use of nuclear energy in general should be phased out in the long term. This position is shared by Denmark, Latvia and Norway." Way to go guys!

• Finally, somebody passed guidelines on public participation. Now, if only they could find a way to make them legally binding.

• Bulgaria and Switzerland signed a bilateral debt-for-environment swap that will excuse 20 percent of Bulgaria's foreign currency debt to Switzerland. In exchange, the Bulgarian government is committed to spend the local-currency equivalent on environmental objectives that correspond to national environmental priorities, particularly pollution activities with a severe impact on public health.

• EBRD, NEFCO and the three Baltic countries launched the Baltic Green Equity Scheme that is provisionally budgeted at somewhere around USD 17 million. This is a good sign, indicating that investor confidence in CEE environmental projects is growing.

• The EU, along with Germany and France, offered to finance the closure and further testing of Kozluduy #1 over the winter. They also offered to provide the electricity shortfall the reactor's closure would cause, but the Bulgarians have not yet accepted the deal.

• The Regional Environmental Center was granted international status and a new home by the Hungarian government.

• The proposed New Regional Environmental Center moved from paper to production when a number of governments, after hearing a feasibility study on the subject, signed a statement of support.

• A treeplanting ceremony was held at the Earth and Man Museum in memory of the late Josef Vavrousek, regarded by many as the "father" of the "Environment for Europe" process. Vavrousek, and his daughter Petra, were killed this past March in an avalanche in Slovakia's Rohace West Tatry Mountains.