WWF Agenda for Accession

The "new" European Union

PREAMBLE: A VISION FOR ACCESSION

The enlargement of the European Union is one of the key strategic issues of our time. At stake is the economic, social, political and - not least - environmental development of up to 13 "newcomer" countries and of all the existing Member States. Negotiations with most accession countries are well under way. Realising the urgent need to promote the environmental dimension in the accession process, WWF directs its Agenda for Accession to the European Parliament and European Commission, to the Council of Ministers, to national governments of applicant countries and Member States, to NGOs and stakeholders, and to civil society across Europe, for consideration, debate, and action.

The environmental aspects of the accession process offer compelling, and potentially popular, benefits for the process and for Europe as a whole. WWF believes that now, as perceptions of the process become somewhat clouded by the details of negotiation and by growing public and political scepticism East and West, is the perfect time to bring environment right to the top of the accession agenda.

The role of environmental issues has so far been shamefully neglected. Far too often the environment is portrayed as a ‘problem’ – the ability of accession countries to meet capital-intensive EC environmental law, such as the Urban Waste Water Directive, is seen as a hurdle at which a number of countries may fall. Similarly, air and water pollution from industrial plants, toxic waste stores and other environmental blackspots in accession countries are presented as obstacles to EU membership. WWF believes a wider debate must be stimulated.

WWF wishes to highlight the environmental opportunities offered by the accession process. Alongside benefits for peace and security, WWF sees accession as providing:

  • Enormous additional natural capital and biodiversity for an enlarged European Union to cherish, enjoy, sustainably use and safeguard for future generations.
  • An opportunity to embark on a more sustainable path: enlargement is the test of the EU’s true commitment to sustainable development.
  • A stronger, wider, more open and participative European Union, in which all citizens enjoy proper access to institutions and information.

Now is the time to influence new programmes, policies and environmental decision-making to promote sustainable development and the conservation of biodiversity, and safeguard a wealth of natural and cultural resources. If the European Union, its Member States, and the accession countries are serious about valuing the environment, and serious about sustainable development, this time is truly critical.

WWF believes these opportunities are currently being passed by. The WWF "Agenda for Accession"offers concrete recommendations to reverse this trend, to exploit these opportunities for the benefit of nature and of the current and future generations of European citizens.

The Agenda addresses in its first part sustainable development as the overarching issue of importance for accession. As such some recommendations relate not only to the applicant countries but should also be applied across the current European Union in general. The second part of the Agenda presents key environmental policy and management issues that relate to the accession process: agriculture and rural development, forestry, water, oceans and coasts, and climate and energy. The third part covers nature conservation and landscapes, focusing on recommendations for safeguarding the accession countries' rich natural capital, before some concluding remarks are given under a "call for action".

1SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The European Union committed itself to a sustainable development path in Article 2 of the Amsterdam Treaty. According to the Treaty no policy area should be seen in isolation from environmental issues. This approach is intended to prevent the destruction of natural values and ensure the avoidance of the creation of environmental problems, therefore treating underlying root causes rather than symptoms.

WWF is concerned that many of the principles enshrined within the Treaty are being overlooked or sidelined during the accession process. Sustainable development encompasses a number of elements, principles and processes discussed below in the context of accession.

Principles and Processes

Governments in the accession countries (in keeping with their counterparts in the existing European Union) give low priority for environmental protection, nature conservation and, in general, for sustainable development compared to economic growth, investments and particular sectors such as transport, thereby risking the reduction of socio-economic options offered and the wastage of one significant comparative advantage that the region possesses.

The rich natural and cultural heritage of accession countries constitute significant "comparative advantages" since they form the potential foundation of development strategies based upon the principles of sustainable development. Environmental goods and services of natural areas continue to be under- or un-valued components of the economic system. These goods and services include, for example, flood control by wetlands and floodplains, eco-tourism in, and around, protected areas, and sustainable timber production. The continuing relegation of nature conservation and sustainable development to the lower priorities of planning and policy-making risks the destruction or degradation of ecosystems. This in turn leads to the limitation of future development options, as has occurred in many parts of the present European Union.

Integration is one of the key principles underpinning the acquis communitaire. Too often, decisions on vital accession-related planning or programming proceses are made in isolation, either from each other, or from key stakeholders and constituents, including even responsible government authorities. Similarly, subsidiarity is also an essential principle, suggesting that country- or regional- characteristics, values and problems of accession countries should be taken into account in decision-making rather than "dictating" the same or similar approach to blanket implementation of the acquis communitaire.

It is clear that inter-ministerial consultation is poor in many accession countries. Insufficient co-ordination and weak or absent joint decision-making and planning continues to hinder attempts at policy integration, weakens any positive impacts of pre-accession measures and programmes, and therefore slows down the entire accession process. Often, for example, there is a critical absence of inputs from the governmental environment authorities into the (generally - and logically - agriculture authority-led) SAPARD process. In the case of Natura 2000 the opposite is often true, with agricultural ministries playing little or no role in preparations to date. Such blockages also obstruct the functioning of the precautionary principle or approach, which worryingly is itself a somewhat under-utilised principle already.

WWF recommends that:

  • Preparations for accession should not be limited to the transposition and "mechanical" implementation of environmental and related legislation, but should instead encompass the thorough integration of environmental considerations into sectoral policies and programmes to achieve a long-term and sustainable development planning in accession countries.
  • Strategic environmental impact assessment (SEIA) should be enforced by the European Commission and by national governments, across all policy and programmatic sectors to ensure coherence of economic, social and environmental activities and goals, and environmental safeguards.
  • Integration of environmental concerns into spatial planning must be enforced, including the review and monitoring of especially potentially harmful motorway, dam and waterway, infrastructure investment and industrial development proposals by the European Commission.
  • The European Commission set a positive example to accession countries by attaching a demonstrably higher emphasis and greater resources to nature conservation within the European Union and within the accession negotiations, thus making badly-needed reinforcements to the role and prominence of nature conservation in Member States as well.
  • Natural and cultural heritage, including biological and landscape diversity, must not be sacrificed as a compensation for delayed compliance timetables or other possible trade-offs during the negotiation process.
  • The European Commission take the opportunity of the accession process to encourage new innovative approaches for comprehensive landuse management and decision-making approaches such as the ecological footprint concept and eco-region based conservation.
  • The European Commission urgently attach "integration criteria" or otherwise re-structure its pre-accession programmes in a way which demands co-ordination and joint decision-making between different sectors, including especially those authorities responsible for agricultural, environmental, and infrastructural investments.
  • No policy area and economic sector be seen in isolation from environmental issues. This relates specifically to agriculture, industry, transport, energy, trade, fisheries, and scientific research.

Timing and Funding

Crucially, the timing of accession-related activities and the availability of pre-accession investment funds may increase the load on the environment, and disadvantage and threaten biodiversity, thereby reducing the rights of current and future citizens to enjoy or sustainably utilise their natural resources.

Many of the decisions concerning the deployment of large-scale pre-accession investments have been made or are currently under discussion. However, the required nature conservation measures, principally the transposition of the Birds and Habitats Directives and the establishment and implementation of the Natura 2000 network, are very far from being enacted. This means principally that transport network development (including motorway, waterway, and improved rail routes etc. through ISPA and other sources such as the European Investment Bank), and agricultural development (intensification, upgrading of facilities, buildings etc through the planned SAPARD programmes) are proceeding in advance of the necessary steps being taken to safeguard biodiversity. As a result, when the nature conservation systems are finally in place, they will only stand a chance of conserving what biodiversity is left following the probably negative impact of these large investment programmes. Beyond the legislative approach, co-ordination and co-operation between public and private sectors will be important.

WWF recommends that:

  • The EU cease funding environmentally destructive programmes immediately and that environmental impact assessment (EIAs) be integrated and properly implemented into all areas of policy and EU funded projects.
  • Environmental programmes be prioritised and that more funding be ear-marked for environmental projects. In particular that:
  • Pre-accession funding for specifically environmental purposes to the applicant countires be at least doubled.
  • EU financial instruments such as ISPA, PHARE, LIFE III and SAPARD be more closely interlinked and offer stronger support for sustainable development.
  • The "entrance ticket" system for accession countries' qualification for future LIFE funds be removed to encourage work on nature conservation.
  • The 5 million Euro lower-limit for ISPA applications be removed to enable smaller and more appropriate projects which have sustainability as an implicit goal.
  • The 200,000 Euro upper limit for Phare Access projects be raised to encourage "larger" projects involving international networking and cross-border activities.

Public Participation

Worryingly, public participation and the involvement of (especially environmental) NGOs in the accession process has so far been rather limited, reducing the rights of citizens to know about, or influence, the far-reaching decisions currently being made on their behalf. As is increasingly well recognised, active and independent NGOs are a prequisite for a healthy and fully-functioning democracy, including aspects such as environmental protection and EU accession. They also contribute technical support and awareness raising in order to assist the accession process.

Whether this failure has been because governments have deliberately excluded NGOs or not, it is clear that insufficient efforts have been made to encourage or facilitate or even allow public involvement. This tendency can be seen in all countries to a greater or lesser degree, and in all stages of the accession process. It affects the planning of preparatory measures, such as the definition of priorities for national SAPARD plans, it clouds the technical and scientific content of future legislation, such as proposals for amendments to the Habitats Directive's Annexes, and it includes crucial decisions such as the request for transition periods.

Worryingly, this tendency also extends to the general provision of information and even setting of country negotiation positions regarding accession. These problems affect all NGOs as well as the awareness and involvement of local authorities.

WWF recommends that:

  • Clearer signals be sent from the European Commission to accession country governments that public involvement in decision-making is required for all environmental planning and implementation processes, from local and regional authority level up to national programmes and international agreements.
  • The European Commission investigate levels of public participation in the accession process to date, possibly starting with the development of a "participation index", and where funding is the limiting factor in the involvement of NGOs, make available the necessary financial resources to ensure the professional development of this sector and therefore the proper representation of all interests of civil society.
  • Smooth and free public access is ensured to important accession-related documentation from the European Commission and from accession country governments, (including documents related to, for example, SAPARD, Natura 2000, and ISPA, or the status of transposition and implementation of all critical environmental Directives and requested transition periods).

2ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND MANAGEMENT

Agriculture and Sustainable Rural Development

The EU accession process, and global processes such as WTO negotiations, demonstrate that the reform and restructuring of the agricultural sector and rural economy in accession countries is a complex, economically necessary, and socially sensitive process. The challenge to "protect" the social fabric of rural areas from mass unemployment, social upheaval, and economic hardship is great, as is the need to avoid the costly and damaging mistakes of production-oriented subsidies as witnessed throughout the European Union.

At the same time, environmental benefits need to be promoted as well as social and economic benefits, and the whole process of "transformation" must be placed within the changing context of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and Regional- and Cohesion- Policies. In short, it must achieve an integrated policy for sustainable regional development.

Although the previous reform of the CAP under Agenda 2000 was a step in the right direction, giving as it did more support for rural development, the present enlargement negotiations and pre-accession support instruments do not currently demonstrate a continuation of this trend. Thus there is still a need to further "green" this policy, in order to promote environmentally beneficial farming practices and to support the rural economy in switching from a production-oriented approach towards more responsible land and landscape stewardship.

Additionally, the current enlargement process gives accession countries little chance to improve the living conditions and life quality of people in rural areas apart from improvements in technical infrastructure, modernisation of the farming sector and intesification of agricultural production. For these reasons future reforms need to be discussed and decided with full and proper participation from the accession countries and have to take very carefully into account the rural character and the cultural heritage that these countries will contribute to an enlarged European Union.

The financial support measure SAPARD is welcome but still largely fails to address the major problems of rural areas such as employment and access to education, training and capacity building. More of a "LEADER"-type approach is needed to develop targeted and tailored programmes for the specific problems of specific rural areas. Despite this WWF believes that, if properly planned and implemented, the SAPARD instrument could demonstrate good results and assist in preparing future reforms of the CAP towards sustainable rural development for both the accession countries and the existing EU members.

However, so far the SAPARD process has been far from satisfactory and significant problems have occured. Many of these relate to rushed preparations and, consequently, submission of unsatisfactory plans, failure to meet deadlines, failure to ensure transparency, insufficient or complete absence of NGO and public participation, and weak or completely lacking co-ordination with environment or nature conservation authorities.

Evaluation has shown that the full range of possibilities offered by this instrument, including notably the promotion of agri-environment schemes, have not to date been fully utilised. The plans have generally favoured larger commercial interests rather than small farmers, and have tended to ignore the non-farming rural population altogether. Adequate provisions for mandatory EIA, including for proposed afforestation programmes, have not always been made. Integration of proposed measures with protected area networks and the Natura 2000 process has been weak.

Communication - whether between ministries and the wider stakeholders, or between ministries and environmental NGOs, or between agricultural and environmental ministries - has seemingly been lacking. The European Commission's new budget line on communications and financing of measures relating to the CAP (Council Regulations 814/2000 and 1390/2000) is therefore a step forward in this respect and needs to be supported and used effectively in accession countries.

WWF recommends that:

  • The CAP continue to be reformed in a direction which de-couples payments to farmers from production and which shifts financial resources towards a rural policy promoting environmentally beneficial practices and the safeguarding of rural natural and cultural heritage, and which firmly places agriculture in the broader context of sustainable rural development.
  • Accession countries be fully involved in negotiations and discussions aiming to reform the CAP.
  • The European Commission and accession countries agree on more realistic submission deadlines and planning milestones for SAPARD, which allow for proper preparation, including consultation and public participation.
  • Ministries of Environment be fully involved in SAPARD to ensure that environmental considerations are taken into account, and NGOs - including environmental NGOs - be informed, involved, and consulted at every stage.
  • Funding for SAPARD be contingent upon a demonstrably higher level of participation, in keeping with the instrument's goals of bottom-up approaches and sustainability.
  • Rural development becomes a major focus for the enlargement process and that agri-environment schemes be encouraged as the most important and efficient tool for delivering environmental benefits in rural areas.
  • Proper links be made between SAPARD and protected area networks and Natura 2000 preparations, for example the use of selected agricultural areas for biodiversity conservation as corridors linking protected areas.
  • Funding be earmarked from the recently launched EU budget line (on communication and the CAP) for specific use in highlighting SAPARD and the positive role it can play in transforming the rural economies in accession countries whilst at the same time supplying environmental benefits.

Forests

Most accession countries have very significant forest cover, and some of the last old-growth forests in Europe are found here. Forests often contribute significantly to rural development and the livelihood of rural economies. Responsibly managed forests can maintain both biodiversity and socio-cultural functions, while contributing to national and regional economic development. Many of the general recommendations found elsewhere in this document apply especially to forests, particularly concerning the use of pre-accession funds such as SAPARD (above), and on the Natura 2000 process (below).