News fom the CEE region
EU ACCESSION
EU membership will change Hungary's landscapeHungary's landscape will go through major changes as a result of joining the European Union (EU), warned Laszlo Haraszthy, head of the Hungarian office of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) at a May 5 press conference in Budapest. The press conference was held to introduce a WWF study, which found that Hungary may have to give up on the cultivation of up to 1 million hectares of land if it joins the EU. Haraszthy pointed out that the loss of extensive farming activities, such as grazing, could cause serious damage to the natural environment and may lead to the extinction of species, according to a press release. He added that the country's forested land may increase by as much as 50 percent and reforestation with species of trees like acacia not familiar to the Hungarian landscape may also cause damage.
CEE air pollution spending must double
A new study by the European Environment Agency (EEA) concludes that prospective European Union member countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) will have to double their annual spending on air pollution prevention to achieve full compliance with EU emissions standards by 2010, according to an April 27 report from ENDS Environment Daily. The computer-model analysis, called "Environment and European Enlargement: Air Emissions," found that the region's 10 accession nations will have to spend EUR 7.5 billion per year to reduce all sources of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions to acceptable levels, the report said.
Pace of Polish EU accession slows
Poland will not be ready to submit its proposals for detailed negotiations on the environmental aspects of its EU membership bid until at least September, according to one of the leaders of recent talks with the European Commission to assess progress so far, an April 9 report by ENDS Environment Daily said. The news will probably disappoint other aspirant countries, which had been hoping that the six "first wave" states could present their position paper to the commission en masse well before the summer, ENDS said. According to ENDS, most nations want to begin political negotiations under the Finnish presidency of the EU, which runs from July to December, because Finland is thought to be more sympathetic to EU enlargement than Portugal, which takes over the presidency at the beginning of next year.
Sweden to support Latvian EU efforts for accession
Sweden plans to help neighbouring Baltic country Latvia on the road to European Union membership in one of the first "twinning" projects aimed at improving candidate countries' approximation to the Union's environmental acquis, according to an April 16 report by ENDS Environment Daily. The Swedish environmental protection agency will receive EUR 350,000 from the EU to help Latvia replace Latvian legislation and administrative structures with models more closely aligned with those being used in the EU, the ENDS report said. Estonia pushes nature law amendment n Estonia plans to ask the EU to amend the 1992 habitats directive to take account of the country's need to control wild populations of some protected animal species, according to an April 7 report by ENDS Environment Daily. Talking to ENDS after recent screening talks, accession negotiator Allan Gromov of the Estonian environment ministry said that hunting of wolves, lynx, bears and beavers was necessary to reduce the damage these animals do to agriculture and the potential threat to human life.
(Source: The REC's Media Information Service)
| Bulgarian nuclear waste transit postponed Workers at reactor number 5 of Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear plant (pictured above) will take interest in a move taken by the Moldovan parliament June 24 which postponed a ratification vote on the 1997 agreement on the transit of nuclear fuel from Kozloduy, according to a report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. This is the second time that the legislature has refused to ratify the agreement - signed by Moldova, Bulgaria, Russia, and Ukraine in 1997 - to allow spent nuclear fuel from Bulgaria to be transported through Moldova to Russia. Although the Moldovan cabinet supports the plan, members of parliament representing the Christian Democratic Popular Front and the Party of Moldovan Communists decided to postpone the vote, according to the report. |
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WASTE
Latvia, Lithuania need to work on wasteLatvia and Lithuania need to improve their handling of waste, according to two recent UN Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) reviews of those countries' environmental performance. According to an April 30 press release from the UN/ECE, "Latvia's biggest environmental problem at the moment is waste. In fact, Latvia does not produce all that much waste (150 to 300 kg per inhabitant per year, against 300 to 450 kg in Western Europe), but its waste management is totally inadequate. Only about half of the household waste is collected and none of the 558 landfill sites are operated according to applicable health standards (1997). Hazardous waste is rarely collected or managed separately5-koz." A May 12 press release about the review of Lithuania said, "Substantial improvements are also needed urgently in waste management, according to the UN/ECE environmental performance review."
ENERGY
Austrian official: Temelin could keep Czechs out of EUA senior Austrian parliamentarian caused an uproar among Czech legislators by saying on June 23 that his country cannot approve the Czech Republic's accession to the European Union unless Prague ratifies an agreement on evaluating the environmental impacts of projects like the Temelin nuclear power station, according to reports. Karl Schweitzer, chairman of the parliamentary environmental committee said in Prague on June 23 that Czech plans to go ahead with the completion of the controversial power station in the south Bohemia region are a major obstacle to EU accession, according to Radio Prague. Schweitzer has asked Czech members of parliament to press for an early signing of this agreement and he expects Temelin to be tested for its likely impact on the environment, Radio Prague reported.
Gas pipeline on bed of Baltic Sea to link Poland, Norway
Polish Premier Jerzy Buzek and his Norwegian counterpart, Kjell Magne Bondevik, have signed a declaration of intent on building a gas pipeline from Norway to Poland on the bed of the Baltic Sea, according to a May 6 report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The new pipeline will carry some 3-4 billion cubic meters of gas annually and reduce Poland's dependence on Russian gas supplies, the report said.
Croatia plans three thermoelectric plants
The Croatian Minister for Zoning, Construction and Housing has unveiled a national zoning programme that calls for the construction of three thermoelectric power plants - in Zagreb, the Vukovar-Sirmium county and northern or central Dalmatia, according to the April 13 edition of the Croatian Foreign Press Bureau's "Daily Bulletin." Minister Mirko Sirac said the thermoelectric power plants will function on ecologically safe fuel, because in Croatia, there is no room for coal, or nuclear powered plants, the report said. The report said that the minister's plan also calls for the dumping of low-to-medium radioactive waste in the Moslavacka and Trgovska mountains in Sisak-Moslavina County.
| Hungary stops selling leaded petrol Leaded petrol, which accounts for 28 percent of all petrol consumption in Hungary and is the source of 70 million tonnes of lead emission a year, has been taken off the market in the country as of April 1, 1999 according to MTI, the Hungarian news agency. The move, initiated by the Hungarian Mineral Oil Association, is in line with European Union plans to stop selling leaded fuel as of next year, MTI reported. |
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WATER
35 nations sign water safety agreementThirty-five European nations signed a protocol on water and health to curb the re-emergence of diseases such as cholera and typhoid, according to a June 21 report from Reuters. Officials attending the World Health Organization's (WHO) Third European Ministerial Conference agreed to the legally binding agreement designed to ensure safe drinking water for the region's 870 million people. Under the protocol, which covers lakes, waterways and rivers, countries must meet targets for water supply, quality and treatment. The WHO has said that one in seven people in the European region, over 120 million people, lack safe drinking water. The protocol will make it illegal to distribute unhealthy water and a country whose neighbour violates the agreement will be protected by law. More than 70 ministers from 51 countries attended the WHO meeting, the largest gathering of health and environment ministers in Europe ever. In addition to the water protocol, ministers adopted a charter on transport, environment and health - designed to reduce air pollution from cars, which is killing more people than do road accidents in some countries, Reuters reported. The next WHO European ministerial conference will take place in Hungary in 2004.
Floods take lives, damage property around CEE region
At least 15 people died in rainstorms in Romania, and severe weather also caused damage in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Moldova, according to a June 24 report from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. In Romania, seven villagers died in the eastern province of Buzau after torrents from surrounding hills flooded their homes and eight others were killed elsewhere around the country - including four who were struck by lightning, the report said. In Hungary, roads and railway lines were closed after rainstorms and gales caused heavy damage over a two-day period, the report said.
