BILLIONS FOR SUSTAINABILITY? II The use of EU pre-accession funds and their environmental and social
implications – Second Briefing
Brussels, June 2001
Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia INTRODUCTION
The Copenhagen European Council in June 1993 agreed that: “the associated
countries of Central and Eastern Europe that so desire, shall become members of
the European Union”. Since then steps were taken to enable that process. One of
the steps was establishing new financial mechanisms for pre-accession aid. In
the period 2000-2006 the European Union is expected to provide financial support
for accession countries in annual amounts of approximately 3 billion Euro via
such mechanisms as ISPA (Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession
Aid), SAPARD (Special Action for Pre-Accession measures for Agriculture and
Rural Development) and PHARE 2000. At the same time co-financing from
International Financial Institutions (IFIs), mainly the European Investment Bank
(EIB) is expected.
With this amount of financial aid profound changes in the economies of CEE
countries are expected, which will at the same time have a significant impact on
the environment, as the resources will be used for infrastructure projects,
energy, nature conservation, environment and agriculture. Therefore the
above-mentioned financial instruments should be in line with the principles of
sustainable development and cross-sectoral integration of environmental
principles in all policy areas. The need to integrate environmental concerns
into other EU policies has been acknowledged since the Single European Act, and
then officially stated in the Amsterdam Treaty. Proper use of pre-accession
funds, according to the principle of sustainable development is crucial for the
future state of the environment in the CEE countries.
The accession process will also have an irreversible impact on the societies of
CEE countries. Civil transformation is still an ongoing process in the CEE
region. With the accession and planned financial pre-accession aid mechanisms,
new challenges for building up civil society arise. It is necessary that
citizens of the accession countries understand and support changes and
investments related to accession. To achieve that, a better understanding of
pre-accession aid mechanisms, as well as transparency and public participation
in the investments financed by EU related sources is necessary.
“Billions for Sustainability? – Financial aspects of Accession” project
This project aims at increasing the ability of environmental NGOs in the region
to deal with preaccession aid, monitor projects financed by these sources, as
well as aiming at the promotion of a more participatory approach from both
citizens’ and authorities’ sides, resulting in full civil society involvement in
the decision-making process.
The project is being implemented by Friends of the Earth and the CEE Bankwatch
Network groups from Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia,
Bulgaria and Slovakia. These groups have a long experience on issues of
environment and financial institutions. Being groups from the region, they have
an obvious interest in the issues.
This report is a second briefing paper conducted under the project. It aims at
providing information on the stage of the pre-accession aid mechanisms in the
accession countries. Our main focus remains public participation and access to
information, as well as the environmental consequences of implementing of the
pre-accession aid. Special interest of this briefing goes for the EU Strategy
for Sustainable Development due to released at the EU summit in Gothenburg and
its link with the practice of pre-accession funds. The briefing was prepared and
put together by project partners.
