E U   A C C E S S I O N

For future EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), local authorities will be saddled with much of the responsibility for implementing new environmental legislation in advance of EU integration. How will they work?

"It is obvious that the EU accession process will have a significant impact on cities," said Timo Makela, Head of the Enlargement Unit for the European Commission's environment directorate, DGXI. Makela was addressing CEE municipal leaders at the Towards Local Sustainability in CEE conference held November in Sofia, part of the European Sustainable Cities and Towns Campaign. "This process will involve all of you and you may be taken by surprise with the extent of this process."

The environmental acquis communitaire - the body of EU environmental legislation which must be harmonised by EU accession countries - is "quite enormous," said Makela, adding that it contains more than 300 legal acts, many of which will directly impact local communities.

An even greater task is the creation of implementation programmes. New sewage and wastewater treatment plants will have to be built, largely under the supervision of local governments. Local authorities will be expected to implement the 1990 EU Directive on Access to Environmental Information and the convention on access to information signed last year in Denmark. In the area of air quality alone, local governments need to guarantee that local standards meet EU standards as spelled out in the 1996 Directive on Ambient Air Quality Assessment and Management. This includes the measurement and monitoring of pollutant levels and drawing up plans to ensure that measured levels remain lower than safety thresholds.

Several EU programmes have been developed (see adjacent column) to assist local authorities with funding, the most important of which is the proposal for a new assistance instrument called ISPA (see The Bulletin, Volume 8 #2, p.9). This is expected to provide assistance worth EUR 1 billion annually from 2000 onwards for the region, half geared for environmental infrastructure such as wastewater treatment facilities.

"There is no time to waste," said Makela, referring to preparing ISPA proposals. "Cities should mobilise all available resources for project preparation work."

Makela stressed that the EU cannot provide full implementation funding. "It will depend on your initiative, together with the national authorities, to mobilise other resources for needed actions," he said.

At the close of the Sofia conference, local leaders inserted a number of clauses related to EU accession into their joint declaration, the Sofia Statement. One was appreciation for the benefits of accession with the hope that they can learn from and give valuable input to future development of the EU. "We have to strive for recognition and respect by Western partners of the diversity that distinguishes the countries of Central and Eastern Europe."

Other clauses referred to adopting EU laws to foster steps to sustainability, proactively using EC assistance and requesting EU help in training municipal officials about the acquis and its implications.