The push to join the European Union is proving good news for environmental protection in Central and Eastern Europe. Ten CEE countries are already associate members of the EU, and four of them - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and the Slovak Republic - hope to receive full membership somewhere around the year 2000. In order to do so, they must ensure their environmental legislation packages meet those of EU member states.
Such comprehensive re-modeling is not easy, but it is important. EU membership will give CEE countries access to Western markets so they can export goods and services across political and economic borders without having to pay heavy trade tariffs. More importantly, improved and enforced environmental legislation will inevitably improve the quality of the environment in CEE.
Armed by a need identified in a recent market survey, the REC has turned much of its attention and resources toward the approximation process. Four workshops, held under the title Competing in the New Environmental Marketplace, focused mainly on harmonization issues and future regulatory trends, and a new REC report to be published in March looks at the state of EU approximation in 10 CEE countries.
"Both businesses and governments are keenly interested in the environmental issues related to the EU approximation process, but little communication is taking place between the two. That is why we chose this theme to launch our new Business and Environment workshop series," says Emil Dzuray, former project coordinator of the Business Information Service.
Despite progress, the harmonization process has not been without its hurdles. The most difficult part of harmonizing Czech laws with EU legislation, according to Dr. Burianova, are issues related to chemicals because they involve input from different governmental bodies. Several ministries are responsible for chemical issues: The Law on Chemical Reporting is being prepared by the Ministry of Health Care in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment, while at the same time, the Ministry of Environment is preparing a related law on the production, export and import of hazardous waste, issues that are closely connected to hazardous chemicals.
Similar information is available for each of the four countries. Workshop proceedings will be published in the local languages and a summary will be published in English. Approximating EU legislation wasn't the only issue on the table at the REC workshops. Others sessions looked at environmental initiatives by local businesses, case studies of CEE businesses that have adopted new environmental practices and technologies to comply with EU standards, and quality standards and certification requirements for environmental professionals.
Appropriately, the conclusions echo many of the comments made at the workshops. Yes, political commitment is relatively high; just look at the "great number of draft laws and regulations which are queuing up in parliaments and governments." And although regulations in sectors like air and nature conservation are well along the road to compliance, sectors such as chemicals and waste management still have a long way to go. Problems, like the shortage of experts, need to be solved, and assistance from the EU must continue.
For the really curious, the country reports break achievements down into a directive-by-directive listing that covers the various environmental sectors as well as general environmental policy. Accompanying tables rate each sector and overall general policy by various pre-determined regulatory criteria (by assigning a "grade" from 1-3) and, in some cases, by the level of compliance (as a percent). Unfortunately, even though a great deal of progress has been made in every country, most of these "report cards" are filled with 0's and 1's, and the percentages fall well below 50. But with efforts like these, next year's grades are bound to improve.