CEE law report

• Updates on legislation from around the region

H U N G A R Y

Proactive MERP

• Building on the 1992 Act on access to public data and the 1995 environmental protection law, Hungary's Ministry for Environmental and Regional Policy (MERP) has inserted a new regulation for public participation in legislative drafting. Approved on 30 August 1996, the new regulation requires the MERP to publish half-yearly a list of acts and decrees currently being drafted. NGOs which intend to be involved in the drafting process can request to be on the MERP list of concerned and qualified NGOs (a "lobby list"). The MERP will then send them the drafts of acts and decrees and will also post this information on the Green Spider computer network which is accessible to more than 200 NGOs in the country. The first list of draft legislation is due to come out in April.

  In addition the MERP has announced the establishment of an Information Office to facilitate the ministry's communications and information dissemination efforts. The office, scheduled to open in April, will provide environmental information from data and publications to education materials to posters. The office will also be connected electronically to a local network providing visitors with access to environmental databases, libraries, and the Internet.

R O M A N I A

Environmental Fund gains favor

• The new Romanian authorities favor the creation of an Environmental Fund as the basic instrument for implementing the national environmental policy. Economic instruments such as user fees, disposal charges, and non-compliance fines would generate resources for the Fund. In this way the protection of the environment would not compete with other social programs for scarce resources from the national budget.

  The Romanian Environmental Protection Law, a second generation framework law based on the principles of precaution, "polluters pay" and public participation, passed in December 1995, after provisions concerning the creation of the Fund were ousted with the explanation that the Ministry of Waters, Forests and Environmental Protection was not prepared to manage such a fund. The change in the Environmental Protection Law, which adds an Environmental Fund, is part of the governing strategy of the coalition that emerged victorious in the November 1996 elections: specifically, the Democratic Convention (CD), the Social Democratic Union (USD) and the Democratic Union of the Magyars in Romania (UDMR).

  - reported by Alexandru R. Savulescu, March 14, 1997

Notching up nuclear legislation

• Two new laws and four governmental decisions to improve existing nuclear legislation are presently on the drafting board in Romania.

  One governmental decision seeks to regulate the organization and functioning of the National Commission for the Control of the Nuclear Activities (CNCAN), according to the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency. A second decision will look to guarantee a corresponding level of payment at CNCAN, in order to motivate highly qualified experts to work with this regulatory and inspection body. In February 1997, the average monthly salary at CNCAN was only Lei 330,000 (approximately USD 50).

  The import, transit and export of wastes and residues of any kind (including nuclear) will be regulated also by governmental decision.

  The problem of taxes and tariffs will be the subject of a fourth governmental decision. Presently, taxes are at a very low level, and have not been actualized according to inflation since 1990. A separation of taxes - which reflect State policy, and encourage or discourage certain activities - and tariffs - which reflect the expenses incurred in order to provide a service - is also foreseen.

  Two new laws are presently drafted: the Law of Liability (civil responsibility) in Case of Nuclear Accident, and the Law for the Creation of the Fund for the Management of Nuclear Wastes and for Closing Nuclear Power Plants.

  Certain provisions of the recent Law for the Safety of Nuclear Activities, adopted in December 1996, are also under scrutiny in order to be harmonized with the 1995 Environmental Protection Law.

  - Alexandru Savulescu

New management for water

• After two years of collaboration between the Harvard Institute for International Development's Central and Eastern Europe Environment and Economic Policy Project and Romania's Water Department, the Romanian Parliament has passed legislation that adopts the "beneficiary pays" principle, which promotes public participation, and creates 11 elected River Basin Commissions for the management of local water resources. The project will be used as a pilot program to guide the gradual creation of a national system of River Basin Commissions.

  - source: ENR Update for Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States

Broad scope for forestry code

• The FORESTRY CODE was adopted at a joint session of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. This joint session was convened to unify the different versions of the law which had been adopted by the two Chambers. The law's scope includes all "forested domain." This domain contains all forests, lands designed for forestation, lands designated for forestry administration needs, ponds, stream beds, and all unproductive land that is included in forested enclosures. The law specifically protects public forested domain, private forested domain, and also forest vegetation outside the forested domain.

  The administration of public forested domain is entrusted to a central public authority, which is responsible for the management of ecological reconstruction, forest conservation and maintenance, guarding the forested domain against degradation of any sort. The same public authority will supervise the exploitation of forest resources and the management of the forested domain.

  Privately owned domain is administrated by the owner either individually or by associations, according to forestry regulations or the rules regarding the protection of the environment. The private owners are allowed to exploit the forest's products in order to obtain profits, or to develop other private economic activities such as renting, concessions, etc. Private owners are also entitled to indemnity paid for the maintenance and conservation of the forests. If the owner does not obey the obligations as stipulated by law, the National Administration of Forests is entitled to execute, through its local offices, all work necessary to protect and conserve the forest, at the expense of the private owners. The law grants similar control over the trade in wood products.

  Forest vegetation outside the forested domain is administrated by the owners of the respective lands, but at the same time is under the jurisdiction of technical and protective regulations, as well as under the jurisdiction of regulations concerning the distribution and transportation of harvested wood. The law strictly forbids the deforestation of forest land outside the forested domain if these lands are designated for conservation. Deforestation is also prohibited if the forest is under the legal age of exploitation. Violation of the code has as its consequences disciplinary, material, civil, or penal responsibility of the guilty person in accordance with the law.

  - source: East European Legislative Monitor