CEECs’ hopes rest with environment priorities

Date: 29/05/1997

By Mark Turner

EASTERN Europe's transition from Soviet vassalage to integrated market capitalism is probably low down the list of environment ministers' priorities as they negotiate EU laws.

Yet the severity of the legislation they adopt could make or break the hopes of central and eastern Europeans (CEECs) of joining the Union in the short to medium term.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that for some of the ten ex-Communist EU applicants, the Union's environmental laws could prove the most insurmountable obstacle to early membership.

According to a recent European Commission report which compared various estimates of the investment needed in the ten applicant countries to reach EU standards in this area, more than 100 billion ecu will have to be spent on the region's industry and services - over 1,000 ecu per person and around half the region's gross national product per capita.

In absolute figures, most investment is required in Poland (around 35 billion ecu or 927 ecu per capita). But many countries - including front runners Hungary (1,306 ecu per capita) and the Czech Republic (1,437 ecu per capita) - need more in relative terms.

While the report's authors stress that the figures should be treated with caution, as they are not always comparable and do not reflect the benefits that eastern industry would gain from the investment, they nevertheless underline a serious and long-term challenge for EU candidates.

Although many of the applicant countries already have quite rigorous domestic environmental standards, they are unable to implement them because of inadequate enforcement and a simple lack of cash.

Factories continue to belch out toxins, water pollution is endemic and waste disposal is an increasing problem.

Not all of this investment will be needed at once, however. It will be at least five years before the ex-Soviet countries join the EU, and when once they do, they will most likely be granted transition periods of up to a decade.

Nevertheless, the Commission report estimates the total annual investment needed in the region at between 8 and 12 billion ecu a year.

“These costs and their impact will depend on the timing of the investments and the selection of the most cost-efficient policy measures. These are important considerations for the CEECs and EU to define a cost-efficient and affordable pathway to approximation,” says the report.

Despite the size of the task, Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard has made it clear that she will not relax Union standards for the sake of the political goal of early enlargement.

She does, however, plan to bring out a guide to EU environmental law in the early autumn to help make the task easier for the East's struggling administrations.