A F T E R   A A R H U S

  This was the question that the new "Network of Independent Experts for Early Implementation of the Aarhus Convention" tried to answer at the REC this Nov. 2-3. The convention, signed in Denmark last June, will bind its signatory countries to increased public involvement and government transparency in all environmental matters.

  The ratification process is just beginning for signatory countries and will vary widely. For some Western and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, environment ministries can point to extensive environmental participation legislation already in place. But where environmental authorities are relatively powerless, the convention will face greater obstacles.

  "It was great to make the convention, but it will be more difficult to ratify and implement it," admitted Willem Kakebeeke, former Chairman of the working group that drafted the convention. "We may need a 'menu a la carte' which can be decided within each country."

  In parts of CEE and some of the Newly Independent States, the convention will immediately become law upon ratification, and in this sense, could fill gaps in existing legislation. "Some NGOs in these countries, however, are concerned that, where existing laws go further than the convention, these innovations will be lost although the convention tries to address this problem," said Steve Stec, senior legal advisor for the REC. In most Western and CEE countries, amendments to existing legislation and new laws will have to be used, implying a much wider and more complicated process.

  The first step is to get everyone to agree on the legal requirements of the convention. The second is to compare it to all existing laws to identify gaps. The third is to prepare amendments to existing laws and get them approved.

  "A very, very difficult job, legally, administratively, politically, in all senses," summed up Peter Jorgensen, head of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency's task force on the convention. Jorgensen, however, is optimistic, predicting that the convention will be implemented by late 1999. During an October meeting in Geneva, Denmark also called for an early entry into force of the convention by 2000.

  The European Commission representative at the workshop, who did not wish to be named, stated that it may take the EC as long as five years to ratify the agreement because of the sheer complexity of the task. She also emphasised that EU countries may ratify the Convention before the EC does.

  One potential stumbling block is that the convention affects many agencies which do not presently consider themselves to be "environmental."

  "For us, the main problem will be how other ministries respond to the convention," says Drita Dade of Albania's National Environmental Agency. "Environmental information is not only with us, it's with different ministries — physical planning, agriculture, trade and tourism — so it's very necessary that we try to make them...respond to the public, the NGOs, the way we do."

  Of course, many people do not yet know what the Aarhus Convention is. Most workshop delegates agreed that a massive awareness-raising campaign will be necessary to inform citizens about their new rights.

  "For Moldova, it's the first time that we have a Ministry of Environment. This convention is the first thing that has sparked their interest," says Anne O'Malley, the liaison for the American Bar Association's Central and East European Law Initiative in Moldova.

  The next step? Moldova's capital, Chisinau, will host the first meeting of the convention's signatories in April.

— Alysia Davies