N E W R E C S
The two-year process to establish New RECs (NRECs) in the Newly Independent States passed a milestone in late March when EU-TACIS, a member organisation of the International Supervisory Body (ISB), selected the contractors who will finalise the NREC charters, hire staff and begin implementation of the much-awaited workplans.
The initiative to found NRECs came out of a 1995 REC feasibility study which recommended new offices in Russia, Ukraine and Moldova - Georgia was later added as a NREC site. Each office would pursue goals similar to those of the original REC - increasing public participation in environmental decisionmaking and supporting the development of civil society, among others. The 1995 study also recommended a single coordinating center for the NIS with national offices focusing on program development and implementation.
The study provided the impetus for the NREC process to be initiated at the 1995 inter-ministerial conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, after which the ISB, a grouping of hosts, donors and advisers, was created with the goal of establishing the NRECs. The ISB later decided on opening four separate national centers, each with their own individually developed mission statements, after which draft charters were formulated.
Last December, the ISB met for the fourth time (ISB 4), in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau to increase cohesion among the hosts and partner countries in devising a common direction for the NRECs. During the meeting, NREC host country representatives tabled their difficulties in setting up national offices. Ukraine, where an office has already been set up with US assistance, argued, along with Russia, that finalisation of a draft charter remained a key obstacle to further progress. Georgia also identified charter difficulties, particularly as many believed that the Georgian office should cover the whole Caucasus region and not Georgia alone.
As a result, the ISB 4 decided that contractors, soon to be selected, should ensure common elements and purpose in all charters, but that some scope for national differences also be allowed. This decision abrogated a previous position taken at the ISB 3 meeting, held in mid-1997, where the group stressed that the charters should be very similar if not the same.
The ISB 4 meeting concluded that a framework document should be signed as the basis for all NRECs. Signatories would be governments wishing to embrace the REC process, including potential donors. The meeting also considered a proposal to establish an international steering committee and a general assembly for the NRECs.
The identification of contractors to implement phase two of the process, which occurred after ISB 4 in March, is significant, but it is only another step in getting the centers up and running. The contractors will need to show considerable strength, and political acumen, just to settle the charter issue - then comes the actual work of the new centers, which has been on the back burner while technical and administrative issues are ironed out.
It would have been ideal if NREC activities were in progress and presented in Aarhus this June. Nonetheless, it will now be important for all NREC participants to prove that the wheels are now really turning to make NRECs a reality.
