CEELI law report

• STEVEN STEC explains new environmental legislation in Central and Eastern Europe

R O M A N I A

New law ends era

• With the Parliament's passage of the Law on Environmental Protection (No.137, 29.12.95), Romania has become the latest (and with the exception of Macedonia, the last) Central and Eastern European country to adopt a second-generation environmental framework law. Romania has now declared that environmental protection is an objective of major public interest. Sustainable development should be achieved through the application of, inter alia, the precautionary principle, pollution prevention, the "polluter-pays" principle, biodiversity, international collaboration, and public participation. The main tools for achieving this goal are harmonized environmental policies, EIA, improved planning procedures, economic or "coercive" instruments, and participation of NGOs in decisionmaking and implementation. The law also mandates 17 further legislative acts for "efficient application of environmental protection measures," covering topics from protection of the atmosphere to forest management, pesticide regulation and bee-breeding.

  Through Article 5 the state recognizes the right to a healthy environment and guarantees access to information (though only concerning environmental quality), the right to association in environmental NGOs, the right to be consulted in everything from policies to permits, the right of appeal to administrative or judicial authorities, and the right to compensation for environmental damages.

Proceedings for permits made public

• The Romanian law is progressive in expressly placing a high value on use of compliance programs as a tool for gradually bringing industry in line with international standards. Existing industrial facilities must get new environmental permits within one year from the effective date of the law. Permits will be good for up to five years. Violations of terms of the permit or of a compliance program can result in suspension. If remediation does not occur within six months after suspension, operations must terminate.

  The law places an outright ban on the importation of wastes of any kind. Facilities must keep strict records and submit monthly reports concerning hazardous substances used and wastes produced or handled. Enforcement is enhanced through self-monitoring and notification requirements, and the law requires mandatory insurance for high-risk activities. Potential fines are still rather low, however - from 50,000 to 3,750,000 lei, depending on the seriousness of the violation. The maximum prison term is from seven to 20 years, in cases where death or great economic loss to the nation results from a serious violation of the law.

S L O V E N I A

Concessions granted for water

• On October 19, 1995 the Slovenian government issued new regulations creating a concession scheme for water resources. The aim of the regulation is to supplement current drinking water sources. It enables local governments and municipal authorities to identify and exploit new sources. Supervision will be carried out by the Nature Protection Inspectorate. A one percent concession charge on the value of the water pumped will be charged, with the bulk of the proceeds going to the local government.

R U S S I A

Courts boost basic rights

• In a case of major significance, the plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (the highest ordinary court of appeal) has issued a declaratory ruling (No. 8, 31 Oct. 1995) that constitutional norms regarding human rights are direct and should be applied by the courts. This decision allows individuals to take complaints about breaches of basic rights to the ordinary courts. The former practice, where cases had to be interrupted to certify questions to the constitutional court, can now be abandoned in favor of direct application of settled constitutional norms. In a few cases where questions are unsettled certification will still be necessary.

Security law chills trial defense

• The case of Bellona, the Norwegian anti-nuclear watchdog group, and the imprisonment of former military officer Nikityin, their representative in Murmansk, on charges of breaching state security, has been widely reported in the international press. But the impact on the case of Russia's new federal law re-constituting the domestic investigation organ formerly known as the KGB, now the Federal Security Service, has gone unnoticed. Immediately following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 the organizations of lawyers got rid of an old rule which required special clearance for lawyers representing defendants in cases involving state security. The law establishing the FSS reestablished the clearance requirement. As a result, today only those lawyers certified during the Soviet Era have such a clearance. Nikityin claims that the requirement has effectively denied him right to counsel, since no lawyer whom he would choose has the clearance. Any lawyer certified during the Soviet Era also had to pass political tests and so could not be counted on to effectively represent a defendant in Nikityin's position. Now a test case is pending regarding the constitutionality of the new security law.

R E G I O N

Briefly

• Poland ratified the international convention on biodiversity (Rio de Janeiro, 1992). A new law on hunting was passed around the first of the year. By various decrees the government established 11 new nature reserves, and set fees for use of natural resources and for modification of the environment. The government has presented a draft EIA law to the Parliament that includes public participation in EIA at the project screening stage.... The Czech Republic is also working on amendments to bring the EIA law up to European norms, and is preparing a new law specifically on access to information.... An EIA law to "implement" the Sofia guidelines is under preparation in Croatia.... A law on the protection of Slovenia's underground caves is in preparation. Slovenia has one of the most extensive networks of caves in Europe.... A draft law on access to environmental information in Slovakia appears to be stalled within the government.... A draft Czech "nuclear bill" has come under fire by proponents of NATO membership. The draft, which Premier Vaclav Klaus claimed has only to do with Temelin, includes language that could prevent the deployment of nuclear weapons on Czech soil. The bill will be tabled until after upcoming elections.... Armenia's Parliament, on November 20, 1995, passed a law on EIA. The new law imposes an obligation on the state to prevent or minimize negative impacts from proposed activities on "human health, environment, economic and social development." It declares that it is a fundamental human right to live in an environment that is "favorable for health, living and creative activity" and bases EIA in part on the principle of "publicity of decisionmaking."