Operational Program Environment

Operational Program Environment

Ministry of Environment

of the SlovakRepublic

Operational Programme

Environment

August 7th, 2007

Bratislava

Content

1Summary

2Operational Programme Preparation

2.1Operational Programme Preparation Process –Partnership Principle Application

2.2Ex Ante Evaluation

2.3Strategic Environmental Evaluation

3The Current State of the Environment

3.1General Characteristic of the Environment of the Slovak Republic

3.2Analysis at the Level of Priority Axis 1 - Integrated Protection and Rational Utilisation of Water Resources

3.3Analysis on the Level of Priority Axis 2 - Flood Protection

3.4Analysis on the Level of Priority Axis No. 3 - Air Protection and Minimisation of Adverse Effects of Climate Change

3.5Analysis at the Level of Priority Axis 4 - Waste Management

3.6Analysis at the Level of Priority Axis 5 - Protection and Regeneration of Natural Environment and Landscape

3.7Implementation Results of the 2004 – 2006 Programming Period

3.8SWOT Analysis

3.9Key Disparities and Development Factors

4Operational Programme Strategy

4.1Base for the OPE Strategy

4.2Global Objective of OPE

4.3Strategy to Achieve the Global Objective as a Result of Thematic and Territorial Concentration

5Priority Axes of theOperational Programme Environment

5.1Priority Axis 1 – Integrated Protection and Rational Utilisation of Water

5.2Priority Axis 2 - Flood Protection

5.3Priority Axis 3 - Air Protection and Minimisation of Adverse Effects of Climate Change

5.4Priority Axis 4 - Waste Management

5.5Priority Axis 5 - Protection and Regeneration of Natural Environment and Landscape

5.6Priority Axis 6 - Technical Assistance

6Horizontal Priorities of OPE

6.1Marginalised Roma Communities

6.2Opportunities Equality

6.3Sustainable Development

6.4Information Society

7Compliance of Strategy with Policies, Documents and Goals

7.1Compliance with the EU Strategic Documents and Policies

7.2Compliance with Strategic Documents and Policies of SR

7.3Links to other EU Financing Instruments

8Financial Plan

8.1Financial Plan OP – Annual Commitments According to the Fund (Art. 36 (1)(e)(i) GR)

8.2Financial Plan OP for the whole Programming Period According to the Priority Axes and Financial Sources

8.3Distribution of the Fund/Funds Contribution into Aid Categories from SF 2007 – 2013 at the OP Level

9Implementation System of OPE

9.1Managing and Implementation Bodies of the Programme

9.2Monitoring

9.3Evaluation

9.4Information Technological Monitoring System

9.5Electronic Data Exchange with EC

9.6Publicity and Information

9.7Financial Management,Control and Audit

10Annexes

1Summary

Operational Programme Environment (hereinafter referred to as „OPE“) is aprogramming document of the SlovakRepublic for utilisation of EU assistance for environmental sector defined for 2007-2013 programming period.

Structure of this document and content of its chapters are based on the (EC) Council Regulation N°1083/2006 of July 11th, 2006 that is setting general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund, and cancelling the (EC) Regulation N°1260/1999 (hereinafter referred to as „general regulation“).

OPE is financed jointly from the European Regional Development Fund(hereinafter referred to as “ERDF”) and the Cohesion Fund(hereinafter referred to as “CF”), and pursuant to Article 37 paragraph 2 of general regulation, it contains priority axes specific to each Fund and a specific commitment by Fund. OPE is prepared on national level, in compliance with Article 35 Section 1 of general regulation.

In line with Article 37(1) h) of the general regulation an indicative list of major projects is also annexed to the OPE (Annex No.1). The list consists of environmental projects with total expenditures exceeding 25mil EUR, in line with Article 39 of the general regulation. Taking into account the indicative character of the list, it can be changed during the programming period.

OPE is based on the analysis of the current environmental situation in the Slovak Republic (hereinafter referred to as “SR”), on the requirements resulting from the environmental acquis, including transitional periods as set by the Accession Treaty, valid European Union (hereinafter referred to as “EU”) legislation and international agreements in the sector of environment, as well as EU legislative measures that are under preparation (drafts of new environmental directives and regulations) that are expected to be adopted during 2007-2013 programming period and, thus, will need to be implemented.

OPE Strategy creates conditions for Slovakia to converge with EU-15 in the area of environmental infrastructure and protection. At the same time, it is significantly contributing so that economic conversion of the Slovak economy to EU-15 average is executed through sustainable development. Global objective of OPE is to improve environmental situation and ensure for rational utilisation of resources, through completion and improvement of environmental infrastructure in Slovakia in compliance with EU and SR regulations, and to strengthen efficiency of the environmental part of the sustainable development.

This objective contributes to accomplishment of Slovak strategic objective that was formulated in the National Strategic Reference Framework of the SlovakRepublic for the period 2007 - 2013 as to increase significantly competitiveness and performance of Slovak regions, economy and employment by 2013, respecting at the same time sustainable development.

2Operational Programme Preparation

2.1Operational Programme Preparation Process –Partnership Principle Application

Partnership principle has been applied in drafting OPE, in compliance with Article 11 of the general regulation. Therefore, the working group „Partnership for OPE“ was established which consists from representatives of relevant ministries, Self-Governing Regions, municipalities and towns, social and economic partners, and NGOs.

During meetings of the „Partnership for OPE“its members received information on the actual situation in preparation of OPE. The document was then amended following their comments.

Comments of partners concerning the draft OPEwere mainly dealing with expansion of activities that could be supported (e.g. such as to include reconstruction of drinking water supply network and sewer network, more activities in the sphere of protection of nature and landscape). Partners have frequently submitted claims to increase allocation of funds for OPE as a whole or for individual priority axis, mainly on activities for collection and treatment of wastewaters.

It was possible to accept the above mentioned comments from partnersonly partially due to the allocation of funds for OPE defined in the National Strategic Reference Framework SR for 2007 – 2013.

One of the NGO requirements was to consistently perform strategic environmental evaluation of all operational programmes, including OPE. MoE SR highly accepted this requirement and during negotiations,managed by the central coordination authority,promoted its enforcement.

All members of the working group „Partnership for OPE“ were contacted and asked to comment,during the interdepartmental commenting, upon the draft OPE before it was submitted to the Government session on 16 December 2006. Their comments as well as the ways and reasons of their acceptance or non-acceptance are a part of a document submitted to the Government sessionwhich is publicly available at the web site of the Government Office SR.

The partnership principle will also be applied during OPE implementation. Representatives of the self-governing regions, social and economic partners and representative of NGOs will be members of the Monitoring Committee for OPE. This will allow them to supervise implementation of the operational programme and its efficiency.

With the aim to improve possibilities to create a partnership with the regions, in particular between the regions themselves, the OPE Managing Authority will consider the possibility of participation in the EC initiative Regions for Economic Change.

Regional and local self-government bodies are one of the target groupsof information activities realised in the framework of the Communication action plan for OPE. During implementation of the operational programme, they, as well as other stakeholders and general public, will be informed about the development and results of OPE.

2.2Ex Ante Evaluation

Pursuant to Article 48 of the general regulation, ex ante evaluation for OPE has been carried out. The Ministry of Environment of the SlovakRepublic (hereinafter referred to as the „MoE SR“), as the OPE managing authority, is responsible for this activity.

MoE SR, following the methodical guideline of the NSFR co-ordinator No. 3/2005 - „Methodological Guideline for Ex-ante Evaluation of the National Reference Framework – Framework Terms of Reference”, prepared Terms of Reference for OPE ex-ante evaluation.

Based on these, in compliance with the Act N°5/2006 on Public Procurement as amended, AUREX, spol sr.o. located in Bratislava, has been selected as ex-ante evaluator.

Ex ante evaluation commenced in the first half of July 2006 and finished in February 2007.

Pursuant to the article 48 of the general regulation,the main objective of ex ante evaluation was to identify and appraise the disparities, gaps and potential for development,the goals to be achieved, the results expected, the quantified targets, the coherence of the strategy proposed for the region or the sector, the Community value-added, the extent to which the Community's priorities have been taken into account, the lessons drawn from previous programming and the quality of the procedures for implementation, monitoring, evaluation and financial management.

In line with above objective, ex ante evaluation was focused on:

• assessment of analysis given in the OPE (including SWOT analysis), identified disparities according to their significance and development potential in the area of environment and environmental infrastructure
• assessment of OPE strategy justification and consistency, including proposed priorities, objectives and the proposed volume and structure of investments for priorities, i.e. proposed financial framework and formulation of recommendations for changes and/or adjustments
• assessment of expected results and impacts of planned interventions, quantification of proposed interventions objectives and formulation of recommendations for changes and/or adjustments
• assessment of OPE coherence with national and regional strategic documents of both the SlovakRepublic and the EC
• assessment of proposed OPE implementation system – process of management, monitoring and evaluation, including financial management with regard to their functioning and efficiency

Ex ante evaluator prepared an Interim Reports on each of the above given objectives during individual phases of evaluation. Five Interim Reports have been prepared, focusing on assessment of analytical and strategic parts of the OPE, evaluation of OPE coherence with strategic documents, assessment of the proposed interventions, including quantification of their planned outputs, outcomes and impacts as well as evaluation of the OPE implementation system proposal.

Recommendations formulated in these Interim Reports have been subject to ongoing discussion between MoE SR, which prepared the OPE, and the ex-ante evaluator. Ongoing changes and adjustments of OPE draft have been made following the results of discussions and based on the formulated recommendations.

In February 2007, the ex-ante evaluator elaborated the final report from the ex-ante evaluation which evaluated OPE as a whole and summarised recommendations from individual phases of the ex-ante evaluation. The final report from the ex-ante evaluation was submitted to the MoE SR on 27 February 2007.

Summary of results and recommendations of ex-ante evaluation including description of the way how they were taken into account during the process of elaboration of the OP and its amendments is presented below.

Evaluation of the analytical part of the OP ENV

Conclusions of the ex-ante evaluator

• three parts of the analytical part of the OP fit together appropriately: analysis of the current state and development of environment, SWOT analysis and also formulated disparities and development factors
• - relevant data enabling description of the current state and development of environment through its elements and factors were used in the analysis. Analysis is aimed at water management, protection o fair, waste management and nature protection and describes all relevant figures in monitored areas.
• in general it is possible to conclude that SWOT analysis is of the good quality. Besides formulations from environmental area SWOT analysis is focusing within its single components on formulations regarding the processes in social and economic area that have influence of environmental state which can be seen as its positive.
• SWOT analysis is balanced in all of priority axis considered and is evaluating data on state and development of the environment in an appropriate manner in fields of interest.
• important disparities and potential factors of development were formulated in the OP and they can be successfully used within the formulation of the strategy of the OP.

Main recommendations and how they were taken into account

• to strengthen regional aspect of analysis

- in line with stated recommendation data describing regional projection of considered figures were inserted into the analysis (chap. 3.1 – 3.6)

- since regional aspects of the OP ENV were of special interest of the European Commission (the European Commission in its comments to the OP ENV officially submitted on the 2nd of March alleged the need to focus more on regional disparities), during the process of elaboration and finalization of the OP ENV the regional concentration of analysis was further strengthened, especially in case of priority axis I Integrated protection and rational utilization of water resources where on the basis of data stated in the National programme of the Slovak republic for the implementation of the Council Directive 91/271/EEC of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste-water treatment a separate annex No. 4 was elaborated and inserted named “State of collection and treatment of discharged waste water” as of reference period 2004 according to the separate regions, as well as in the priority axis 3 “Air protection and Minimisation of Adverse Effects of Climate Change” where particularities of the situation in separate areas of air quality management were characterized in more detail.

Regarding the situation in the regions after realization of projects financed from ERDF and CF chapter 3.7 Implementation Results of the 2004-2006 programming period which before contained only data from the whole territory of the Slovak republic, finally it was detailed to the level of regions. Data on assumed and real values of stated indicators according to the regions (self-governing regions) on the basis of which the situation in regions after finalization of project supported from the EU funds can be assessed. Also annexes

No. 12 and 13 containing data on regional level are stemming from this chapter.

• to insert into the analytical part data that related to social and economic area (prices of drinking water supply and collection and treatment of waste waters, information on water companies management, state in the area of cross funding etc.).

- data were inserted (see p. 24 – 25 of this document)

• to respect principle of data sources citation, to correct wrong data (especially in the area of water management) and bring them into correspondence.

- source of stated data was inserted under each table, data in Chapter 3.2 Analysis at the Level of Priority Axis 1 - Protection and Rational Utilisation of Water Resources were precised to be coherent with the data in National programme of the Slovak republic for implementation of the Council Directive 91/271/EEC of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste-water treatment and data on POVAPSYS were also inserted

• to delete some disproportions in SWOT analysis, f. e. between formulation of one of strengths and weaknesses in the priority axis 4 (strength: Adoption of the Investment Strategy for Remedy of Environmental Burdens in the Slovak Republic, weakness: Environmental burdens inventory in the Slovak Republic not finalised, absence of environmental burdens information system, absence of state programme of re-mediations. According to evaluator’s opinion adopted Investment Strategy for Remedy of Environmental Burdens in the Slovak Republic is in fact equal to state programme of re-mediations ) and also in priority axis 5 (among strengths followed text is inserted: Drafting “favourable state” definitions for majority of species and habitats of European importance and preparation of assessment methodology; among weaknesses is inserted: Incomplete definitions of “favourable state” for 22 species of flora and fauna of European importance and for all species of national importance, as well as Insufficient countrywide information and data on species and habitats of European importance. By this formulation of weaknesses the formulation of stated strength is rather questionable).

- formulations of said strengths and weaknesses were detailed to avoid their contradiction.

• to consider insertion of weaknesses in case of priority axis 4 with: Lowering of incineration capacities for waste generated from health sector, Insufficient level of bio-degradable waste recovery, Regional disproportions in the area of municipal waste treatment.

- even though proposed formulations mirror weaknesses in the area of waste management, in order to maintain unified level of generalization of SWOT formulations (on the level of operational aims) they were not inserted (since they address concrete types of waste within operational aims).

Evaluation of the strategy of the OP including proposed priorities and aims

Conclusions of the ex-ante evaluator:

• Strategy of the OP ENV is putting together appropriately the basis of the strategy, formulates the global aim and the strategy for reaching this aim itself. Adequate basis for strategy formulation represented by relevant national and supranational strategic and conception materials, results of the analysis of the current state and development of the environment projected to the SWOT analysis, disparities and development factors, as well as legislation in the area of creation and protection of environment.
• In general it is possible to conclude that basis of the strategy of OP ENV ensure its interconnection to the aims of sustainable development which can be seen as a positive of the strategy
• Strategy of the OP ENV covers formulated disparities and factors of development and focuses on their solution and develops them appropriately in priority axis
• Inter-linkage to the obligations of the Slovak republic stemming from environmental acquis and inter-linkage to the content and aims of the cohesion policy of the EU is a positive of the strategy of the OP ENV.

Main recommendations and how they were taken into account

• not to restrict the strategy of OP ENV characteristics just from environmental point of view but also characterize also its social, economic and territorial dimension.

- in line with the stated recommendation the strategic part of the OP ENV in its current version (chap. 4.1.2) explicitly contains provision that strategy intention of the OP ENV are based on 4 dimensions – environmental, economic, social and territorial and also the way is characterized how very of these dimensions will be fulfilled.

• to insert long-term aims to the strategy, on which the strategy is established and which also enable to assess rightness and importance of strategy’s direction in a long term.

- intentions, principles and long term aims of State environmental policy were inserted to the strategy (chap. 4.1.3). On this basis it was also possible to justify that strategy and OP as a whole are contributing to solution of identified long-tem aims in the field of creation and protection of the environment and sustainable development