The political risks and global economic impacts in particular are the central issues in the discussion on the EU membership of new countries. Environmental protection, too, is repeatedly the focal issue and belongs to the difficult chapters in the membership negotiations for several reasons. This fact is also the reason why the EU Commission has declared environmental protection next to the sectors of finance, justice and agriculture to one of the four focal points of the enlargement process.

The EU is presently holding talks with Poland, the Czech republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia, and Cyprus on a possible membership. Talks with Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Rumania, Bulgaria and Malta shall begin in 2000. Turkey, which is presently not fulfilling a number of political and economic criteria, shall be further drawn up to the EU by means of a special strategy according to the “Progress Report” of the Commission.

What is actually the present status of membership negotiations up to a possible agreement, for which no date has been set yet? In over 30 political sectors the applying countries have to prove that they are making efforts to fulfil EU standards. To this date about half of these items of talks have been opened. The bigger obstacles, however, still lie ahead of the applying countries: The Austrian government, for example, is blocking the opening of the talks in the field of energy, because it demands a clear statement that the atomic power stations of the applying countries have to conform to western safety standards.

The prelude to official negotiations on environmental issues between the EU Commission and the first six countries has already been made at the beginning of this year. In a first multilateral round the Commission gave a survey on the “Acquis Communitaire”, the Community legal status on the environmental sector. In this context, the focal issues were water and nature protection, but also the commitment of the member states to observe the reporting guidelines within the Union. Every two years the member countries have to give an account of the state of implementation of EU environmental laws.

The subsequent bilateral talks centred on the problems that could occur in detail in the implementation of EU environmental law in the individual states and on the question how the environmental state-of-the-art could be evaluated. Investigations proved that on the one hand the environmental situation in many countries is far from meeting West European standards, on the other, that it is exactly this fact that constitutes a big chance for the protection of nature and the environment in the Central and Eastern European States (CEE). The European Union has reached a very high level in this field, and this level has now to be passed on to the candidates. EU membership shall not serve the levelling downwards of the standards achieved, but to lift up the new member states to the level jointly reached.

In its latest report the European Environmental Agency especially stresses the necessity to preserve the rich natural heritage and the biodiversity still existing in some of the applying countries. On the other hand, the principle of sustainability is playing a big role in this context: the equal integration of economic, social and ecological issues in the CEE countries is urgently required to avoid detrimental consequences of an accelerated economic growth.

For these reasons, the Commission has proposed to restructure the PHARE-Programme, which has existed already since 1989, in view of the membership of the CEE countries. Since summer, projects having a so-called “relation to the enlargement” are being given priority in the allocation of subsidies. In this context it was agreed that 30 percent of the financial aid is going to be used for building up the administration in the future member countries, the remaining 70 percent shall go into investments designed to improve the accessibility.

EU rules and regulations relative to environmental legislation are extensive and it is clear that their implementation in CEE countries is very cost-intensive – especially on the sector of water and waste water services and air pollution prevention. Last year, for example, the full embodiment of the environmental legal rules was estimated to amount to about 120 billion Euro. The costs for the approximation of drinking water supply and waste water treatment alone were estimated to amount to a total of 50 billion Euro. In many cases the lack of water supplying facilities, mains and waste water treatment plants or the existing infrastructure afford extensive investment in refurbishment.

According to the commission the same amount of 50 billion Euro would be necessary for the equipment of large power stations with emission control installations. The remaining financial means have to be almost exclusively used for waste management. A central cost factor is the construction of disposal plants – sanitary landfills and waste incineration plants – for residual and hazardous waste.

The necessary financial means for extensive investment in water and waste management have to be covered mainly by public funding, while in the energy sector financial means are like to be raised on the free capital market. Not included in the assessments are for example the clean-up of waste dumps or the embodiment of environmental legislation in the private sector, for example in car emissions. Equally not included in the cost assessments are innovative solutions or an expected economic modernisation boom. Altogether, these approximations afford enormous efforts on the side of the applying countries, amounting to between 0.9 and 3.4 of the specific gross national product.

Reducing the environmental discussion with the CEE countries to a mere cost issue is not acceptable for several reasons: on the one hand, the western states urge eastern reforming countries to adopt the environmental laws to avoid distortion of competition, on the other hand this will improve the strained environmental situation. The often quoted and feared “environmental dumping”, i.e. better market opportunities for cheaper products from countries with softer environmental rules, is not exclusively a consequence of eastward enlargement, but of globalisation in general. Under free market conditions, however, it is also demand and offer that decide on the actual chances of dumping strategies to the detriment of the environment.

A considerable role in the course of accession negotiations are playing the numerous NGOs, which have been active in the CEE countries since the end of the communist regime to improve the environmental situation. In the past, NGOs have been involved in the process of raising public awareness and are also now called upon to make clear that environmental protection is not available for free.

The EU Commission is not expecting that any of the applying countries will have reached the high environmental standards by the time they enter the EU. National plans for the rapid realisation of selected projects, such as the restructuring of the drinking water sector or waste management, and the search for alternative financial sources shall be immediately drafted in those countries. Nevertheless, ecological aspects have to be included in the negotiations on the reorganisation of the economy, so that the economy will develop without detriment to the environment. (Source: aqua press Int. 05/1999)
Renate Haiden

Recommended literature in German:

B. Busch, Die Osterweiterung der Europäischen Union, Köln 1999, ISBN 3-602-24072-X. V. Leienbach, A. Seffen, Die Osterweiterung der Europäischen Union, Sozialpolitische Perspektiven, Köln 1999, ISBN 3-602-14471-2. H.-J. Wagener, H. Fritz, (Hg.), Im Osten was Neues, Aspekte der EU-Osterweiterung, Bonn 1998, ISBN 3-8012-0259-3. S. Lughofer, C. Lamport, Wien 1998, Das EU-Umwelthandbuch. R. Kirt, (Hg)., Der Vertrag von Amsterdam – Ein Vertrag für alle Bürger, Wien 1998, ISBN 3-85436-256-0