Brussels, 22/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - On the occasion of the public hearing on enlargement and the environment, organised on Tuesday at the European Parliament, Commissioner Margot Wallström announced she gets impatient at the relatively slow rate of progress. This is one of the most difficult chapters, stressed the Commissioner, who denounced the "discrepancy between the ambitious target dates for accession and the level of priority with which the environmental chapter of the acquis is dealt with".
Negotiations on the environmental chapter were opened in December with six countries of the "Luxembourg Group": Hungary, Cyprus, Poland, Estonia, Czech Republic and Slovenia. To date there has been a "simple exchange of negotiating positions" for a process that the Commissioner describes as "somewhat discreet" but "regular". Ms Wallström nonetheless stressed that, though candidate countries must accomplish considerable effort to "catch up", they also have a great deal to contribute to this policy, thanks to their great biodiversity and their "innovative use of economic instruments", and other environmental taxes.
Andras Krollop, representing at the hearing the NGO "Central and Eastern Europe Working Group for the Protection of Biodiversity", also stressed the very great biodiversity of applicant countries compared to the EU member countries. Patricia Lorenz, from the "Friends of the Earth" Association, drew attention to the dangers of nuclear reactors in candidate countries which, she stressed, are not all conform to Community norms and are not likely to be upgraded.
The representatives of applicant countries emphasised the measures already taken for integrating the Community body of law into their legislation. Hanno Zingel, from Estonia's Ministry of the Environment, thus stressed progress accomplished by his country for transposition of the Habitats and Wild Birds directives. Tadeusz Strojwas, from the Polish delegation with the EU, also presented various projects in progress, while drawing attention to their cost. From 2000 to 2010, Poland will need, he said, 35 billion euros in order to adopt the full acquis communautaire.