Progress Monitoring on Approximation

PROGRESS MONITORING ON APPROXIMATION

Progress Monitoring Manual
(Version 17 October 2005)
Supporting the Accession Process of the Candidate Countries
07.020100/2004/382872/MAR/E3
Progress Monitoring Manual

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Why Monitor Progress in Approximation

3. The EU’s Environmental Reporting Requirements

4. Progress Monitoring of Approximation

4.1 Progress Monitoring of Transposition

4.2 Progress Monitoring of Implementation

5. Monitoring Approximation Plans & Programmes

6. Recommendations

Annexes

I: Matrix for overall coordination of progress monitoring

II: Tables of Concordance for monitoring transposition

III: Implementation Questionnaires

1. Introduction

One of the main prerequisites for accession is to bring national legislation into harmony and to achieve compliance with the laws of the European Union.

Environment is considered a sector that will pose particular problems for the candidate countries in this regard because of the extent of the EU environmental requirements and the need for significant investment in environmental infrastructure in order to achieve compliance. Because of the cost implications of approximation in the environment sector, effective systems for managing transposition and implementation will be important in order to achieve timely and cost-efficient progress.

Systems for monitoring progress in approximation will also be important in preparations for the formal screening now being carried out in tandem with the European Commission. Moreover, candidate countries will need to have up-to-date information on their progress in environmental approximation in order to guide negotiations with the EU for this sector. In particular, they will need to document that the legal obligations set forth in the environmental acquis have been satisfactorily transposed and implemented.

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV) has taken a number of steps to assist the candidate countries in their task of environmental approximation, including commissioning the continuation of the "Progress Monitoring on Approximation"project (official title: “Supporting the Accession Process of the Candidate Countries and Croatia”; 07.020100/2004/382872/MAR/E3) which is currently in its 9th year (2005/2006).

This project aims to set up a user-friendly system for progress monitoring for use by:

1. the candidate countries themselves, as a means to assess and track the development of the approximation process;

1. DG ENV, as an objective way to follow how the candidate countries are proceeding in their task of transposing and implementing the environmental acquis, in order to better assist them in this task.

In its 9th year, the project covers58Directives, as well as 8Regulations and 1 Commission Decision in the environment field, with 1 August 2005 as cut-off date for new legislation (See List of Legislation in Annex I).

This Progress Monitoring Manual describes the challenge ahead for the candidate countries in tracking progress in adopting and implementing the environmental acquis, both prior to and after accession. It also provides suggestions for ways in which countries can set up ongoing systems of monitoring. These suggestions include the methodologies for monitoring progress in transposition and implementation developed under the "Progress Monitoring" project, as well as some developed by the new Member States and by the candidate countries themselves.

The Manual concludes with recommendations for the candidate countries concerning measures to ensure availability of up-to-date information on their progress in approximation.

2. Why Monitor Pre-Accession Progress in Approximation

The 1998 Communication on Accession Strategies for Environment (Reference : Com (98)0294-C4-0380198) discusses how to develop national programmes for transposition and implementation of the environmental acquis. It notes the need for provision-by-provision legal gap analysis, through use of "tables of concordance". It advises using the legal gap analysis as a basis for a proper legislative programme with precise timetables for different stages of the legislative process. The development of implementation programmes that set priorities and realistic timetables for achieving compliance is considered another crucial component. A mechanism for continuously monitoring the completion of the programme, and for annual reporting on progress is also considered important.

Finally, the Communication advises that countries subject all of their activities envisaged for the pre-accession period to regular monitoring and review. It suggests that countries establish systems towards this end, particularly for communication and reporting.

As the Communication indicates, quality information on inter alia status of transposition and implementation, including whether action timetables are being met, will be essential throughout the pre-accession period to ensure effective management and coordination of the approximation process.

Ministries of Environment are already being asked to supply information on status of approximation to a wide range of EU-level and national authorities, including:

European Commission (DG ELARG)

European Commission (TAIEX Office)

European Commission (DG ENV)

National Ministries of Foreign Relations

National Commissions for European Integration

National Negotiating Teams for Accession

Other Ministries, where competence is shared

Capacities of Ministries of Environment are, however, limited. Responses to demands for information from outside clients are often put together at the last minute, causing considerable strain for already busy European Integration Units. Few countries have developed structures for monitoring that could provide for systematic review of progress in transposition and implementation, or an early warning system to signal potential problem areas.

It is, however, when resources are limited that progress monitoring becomes essential. A system for periodically reviewing progress in approximation can help Ministries of Environment to:

• Use resources more effectively. Regular review of programmes for transposition and implementation will facilitate early identification of potential problems and help Ministries to allocate limited human and financial resources to priority issues. The danger of making mistakes that could result in costly and time-consuming corrective measures is reduced.

• Increase level of co-operation within the Ministry. The process of EU approximation requires a substantial involvement of technical experts within Ministries of Environment. Progress monitoring can help these technical experts develop a better understanding of EU requirements and of the scope of approximation. All this contributes to achieving a clearer focus and improved co-operation among the various units and departments within the Ministry.

• Build more stakeholder support. Information collected by the monitoring system could be used to inform relevant stakeholders and the public, and to solicit their support. This would increase public awareness and help the government to build political support from a wide range of stakeholders for carrying out implementation actions.

• Prepare for responsibilities of membership. All Member States are expected to report to the European Commission within given intervals on the status of transposition and implementation of EU environmental acts (see next section). Establishing a regular progress monitoring system during the accession period could lay down the foundations for meeting this reporting obligation once the applicant country becomes a MemberState.

Case Study 1: Austria

Austria’s Ministry of Environment established a European Integration Unit for overseeing pre-accession preparations and negotiations. This unit relied on the Ministry’s technical experts to carry out provision-by-provision analysis of legal conformity with EU requirements, to identify problem areas, and to ensure transposition and implementation.

At times, the bureaucracy had difficulty providing specific information on transposition and/or implementation when needed by the negotiators. Some problems arose simply because technical experts were not getting enough information about the pre-accession process and did not understand the need for quick response.

To ensure better cooperation between the technical experts and the negotiators for the environment sector, the European Integration Unit set up an internal Task Force that met each Friday afternoon. The weekly Task Force meetings were used inter alia to develop strategies for negotiations, to deal with specific transposition or implementation problems, and to monitor progress in those areas. One or two technical experts would come to each Task Force meeting to discuss the situation concerning the directive(s) for which they had responsibility. A representative from the Minister’s Cabinet also attended regularly, which raised the political profile of the Task Force.

This structure helped foster better communication within the Ministry, and ensured a steady flow of information to and from the technical experts concerning approximation.

Ideally, a structure for regular monitoring of transposition and implementation should enable a Ministry of Environment to always have:

• Updates on the current status of transposition and implementation nationally, including timetables for all approximation efforts and possible delays, expenditures, remaining tasks, etc.

• Updates on changes in EU requirements or trends in the EU policy that may impact current plans for transposition and implementation, and planned expenditures.

• All necessary information at hand for the needs of the negotiating team and for reporting to the European Commission.

A system of progress monitoring will need to be able to supply different types of information, according to the particular needs of various authorities. In certain instances, e.g., updates of the TAIEX Harmonogramme or of the National Programme for the Adoption of the Acquis, only a directive by directive overview is required.

In tracking progress in transposition, a comprehensive legislative timetable can be useful. The Ministry of Finance may need to know how much investment in environmental infrastructure will be needed in the years to come, in order to better plan overall public financing strategies. This information will also help the Commission to determine how better to assist the country to meet its environmental approximation goals.

Carrying out progress monitoring helps to prepare for the screening exercise. Finally, thorough progress monitoring will help to ensure correct transposition and implementation. This will enable governments to avoid infringement procedures after accession that could have consequences for future Community funding in the environment sector.

Ministries of Environment may need to monitor the work of other Ministries, if competence for transposing and implementing some of the environmental acquis is shared with, e.g., Ministries of Health Care, Agriculture, Economics, and so on.

However, within the Ministry itself, where the actual work of carrying out approximation takes place, the information will need to begin with the details. Once the true picture is known, realistic internal work programmes can be developed, in order to better manage the approximation process. Detailed information gathering capacity will also need to be set in place, in order to be prepared for the reporting responsibilities that will begin at accession.

3. The EU Environmental Reporting Requirements

Once candidate countries become full-fledged Member States, they will be under an ongoing obligation to gather information and report to the Commission concerning the status of particular Directives.

The European Union has developed a system for the Member States to use in reporting on the status of transposition and implementation of environmental requirements. This system was standardized and rationalized with the adoption of the Reporting Directive (Council Directive 91/692/EEC on the standardization and rationalization of reports on the implementation of certain Directives relating to the Environment).

The Reporting Directive was intended to improve the transmission of information from the Member States concerning the status of transposition and implementation of certain directives. It covers some 30 environmental Directives dealing mainly with protection of water and air quality, and waste management. Each Directive contains provisions requiring Member States to provide the Commission with information on the present environmental situation and/or the status of implementation.

Under the Reporting Directive, the Commission is empowered to draw up a questionnaire or outline covering the information needed from the Member States. These questionnaires or outlines are then adopted as binding Commission Decisions, usually by means of a committee procedure. A partial list of the Commission Decisions adopted so far under the Reporting Directive is provided in Box 2.

The questionnaires or outlines become mandatory formats for the reports that the Member States must send to the Commission at stipulated intervals. The information is gathered by the Commission and published in Commission reports on implementation of the respective directives. The Implementation Questionnaires prepared under the Progress Monitoring project have taken the Reporting Directive’s questionnaires into account wherever they exist.

The candidate countries will not need to transpose the Reporting Directive into national legislation, but they will need to be prepared to implement its requirements. In particular, they will need to have structures in place for gathering the information required by the various Decisions adopted under the Reporting Directive, and for reporting this information to the Commission, by the time of accession.

Commission Decisions adopted under the Reporting Directive
(partial list)
Waste management
Commission Decision 94/741/EC of 24 October 1994 concerning questionnaires for Member States reports on the implementation of certain Directives in the waste sector (implementation of Council Directive 91/692/EEC) (includes questionnaires for the Disposal of Waste Oils, Waste Framework, and Sewage Sludge Directives)
Commission Decision 96/302/EC of 17 April 1996 establishing a format in which information is to be provided pursuant to Article 8(3) of Council Directive 91/689/EEC on hazardous waste
Commission Decision 97/138/EC of 3 February 1997 establishing the formats relating to the database system pursuant to European Parliament and Council Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste
Commission Decision 97/622/EC of 27 May 1997 concerning questionnaires for Member States reports on the implementation of certain Directives in the waste sector (implementation of Council Directive 91/692/EEC) (includes questionnaires for Hazardous Waste Directive and Packaging Directives)
Water
Commission Decision 95/337/EC of 25 July 1995 amending Decision 92/446/EEC of 27 July 1992 concerning questionnaires relating to directives in the water sector (replaces the annex to Decision 92/446 with questionnaires for Dangerous Substances Discharged into Water, Fish Water, Titanium Dioxide, Shellfish, Protection of Groundwater, Surface Water for Abstraction of Drinking Water, Drinking Water and Bathing Water Directives)
Commission Decision 93/481/EEC of 28 July 1993 concerning formats for the presentation of national programmes as foreseen by Article 17 of Council Directive 91/271/EEC (questionnaire for the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive)
Air
Commission Decision 96/511/EC of 29 July 1996 concerning the questionnaires provided for in Council Directives 80/779/EEC, 82/884/EEC, 84/360/EEC and 85/203/EEC

4. Progress Monitoring of Approximation

The structures that Ministries of Environment establish for progress monitoring will need to follow a systematic approach. At least two types of information will be important: (1) objective assessments of the current status of transposition and of implementation, and (2) information on the changes in that status over time, as legislative and implementation programmes move forward. Environmental officials may also want to track the progress being made by other ministries and/or agencies with competence for various acquis in the environment sector, in order to ensure that approximation in the environmental sector is comprehensive.

Other information related to approximation may also need to be monitored, e.g., legislative developments taking place in Brussels with regard to the environmental acquis, any EU or bilateral assistance projects related to approximation, the status of translations.

One system for tracking progress in approximation already in place is the TAIEX "Harmonogramme". The National Programmes for the Adoption of the Acquis may provide another basis for a system for tracking approximation work. Both systems cover all of the acquis, including environmental requirements. Each system provides a directive-by-directive overview that is important for national management of progress in approximation across all sectors.

On Ministry level, however, monitoring of progress in approximation needs to begin with a detailed provision-by-provision assessment of the correspondence between national law and each EU act within that Ministry’s competence. Assessment of the status of implementation likewise needs to be carried out provision by provision, if the true picture is to be known.

Within the framework of the "Progress Monitoring" project methodologies have been developed for monitoring progress in (1) transposition and (2) implementation, and progress monitoring forms have been prepared for each of the referred Directives and Regulations. These methodologies, along with ideas set in place in other countries, are described in the next sections.

Case Study 2: Lithuania

In developing its approximation strategy, the Lithuanian Ministry of Environment devised a simple way of tracking the progress of various approximation-related activities, based on a matrix format. The first column of the matrix lists the 70+ clusters of EU environmental legislation listed in the Guide to Approximation. The next few columns indicate which ministry has competence, and which ME official is responsible for coordinating approximation for each directive. Another group of columns is used to track the status of translations of EU legislation, i.e., if translation had been ordered, checked for technical accuracy, checked for legal accuracy, checked by a linguist, and received official approval.

The matrix also has columns for tracking whether gap assessments have been carried out, and for noting the status of any draft legislation to transpose the requirements under way. It is only four pages long and can be updated by hand or on computer. During particularly busy work periods, it is updated as frequently as every two weeks. It has proved to be a means of quickly checking at any given time the progress in a particular area.

4.1 Progress Monitoring of Transposition

A1997 Guide to the Approximation of European Union Environmental Legislation, prepared in 1997 by Milieu Ltd., ( suggested the use of a provision-by-provision Table of Concordance for reporting on transposition of Directives.

The Table of Concordance format is used by many Member States to demonstrate to the European Commission that transposition of the provisions of an EU Directive has been completed. The table form is a transparent way of showing that each obligation in the Directive has been transposed, along with the particular provision(s) in the national legislation transposing the obligation. In addition, Member States are obliged to communicate to the Commission the texts of the legal provisions adopted in the field covered by the Directive.