Activities

§ Path: Hungary

The countries of Central and Eastern Europe have inherited serious environmental problems, exacerbated by the fact that today, with lower environmental standards than the EU and a strong drive towards economic development; many have become environmental dumping grounds. Support is urgently needed in these countries in order to facilitate the difficult transition from an outdated and environmentally unsustainable system of development to one of harmonious growth.

Such a transition can be achieved through cooperation that enables the transfer of knowledge and experience, promotes the widespread dissemination of technology and know-how, invests in innovation and research, and creates a common pool of knowledge on which to draw. A huge cooperative endeavour is therefore required, together with sustained efforts in capacity building, training, orientation and guidance. This is the goal underlying the initiative launched by the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea (IMELS) to implement a series of international programmes for environmental cooperation involving the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and beyond. The goal is to turn environmental protection in these countries into an opportunity for economic and social growth, achieving sustainable development in line with the Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000 at the UN Millennium Summit. The institutional umbrella under which IMELS aims to realise this project is provided by The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC), an international not-for-profit organisation that was specifically founded to facilitate the pooling and exchange of knowledge and resources between institutions, non-governmental organisations and enterprises. From the outset, Italy has shown a strong commitment to finding the best ways to produce concrete results through the activities of the REC: in 2001 this Italian vision resulted in the establishment of the Italian Trust Fund (ITF), a tool to finance eco-cooperation and sustainable innovation projects. Its purpose is to provide the REC with funding, know-how and technical assistance, creating the conditions necessary for the realisation of projects dedicated to sustainable development, innovation, the promotion of renewable energy, institution strengthening and environmental training in general. From this environmental initiative for Central and Eastern Europe, bilateral environmental cooperation projects have been developed between Italy and, for example, Albania, Kazakhstan, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Turkey.   Twenty years after the challenge of sustainable development was described in the Brundtland Report “Our Common Future”, published in 1987, much still remains to be done to combine ecology, economy and fair practice. Many significant projects have been started up in this sector by Italy, in collaboration with the REC, all aimed at training technicians and managers to be able to maintain economic development in a way that is compatible with social equality and environmental protection. So far, hundreds of practitioners have acquired important knowledge and experience through courses and programmes organised by the REC.

The goals of the project were to train administrators in Turkey in the area of climate change to reduce its CO₂ emissions by developing climate change policies focusing on priority economic sectors, and to assist it in the fulfilment of the obligations laid down by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Government officials were trained and NGOs and civil society were also involved. This project was developed in cooperation with the European Community (LIFE – Third Countries), the ITF, the cooperation of the Turkish Ministry of the Environment and Forestry and the Greek company Exergia.

The centre of this advanced capacity building programme is an interdisciplinary 2-5 week course supplemented by regular alumni events and additional communication activities.By 2009,two hundred senior governmental officials were trained in the “three pillars” of sustainable development: economic growth, social progress and environmental protection. They examine the major approaches to sustainable development with the guidance of noted professors and experts. The programme involved participants from Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey. The course is developed in cooperation with the REC, the Venice International University (VIU), the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, and Agroinnova.

The Turkish Green Pack is aimed at teachers in Turkish secondary schools and provides educational tools for teaching young students about sustainable development. Around 1,600 teachers have been trained on the usage of the multimedia pack comprising lesson plans, interactive games and other educational tools for use with students, as well as a selection of videos, films and a CD-ROM. The project was carried out in collaboration with REC Country Office Turkey and a number of local partners.

The goal of this project is a wide-scale training to introduce environmental education and sustainable development as a subject in Albanian schools. The project introduces the environment as a subject at teacher-training universities and involves the introduction of training courses for teachers who afterwards teach environment as a subject. Many partners are contributing to the project, including the Ministry of Education and Sciences and the Ministry of the Environment of Albania, three Albanian universities (Tirana, Shkodra and Gjirokastra), regional authorities, and 1,700 schools in which the Green Pack is being introduced in a pilot phase.

A complete set of advanced courses on facing the challenge of sustainable development was organised in collaboration with the Bosporus University in Istanbul. The courses are intended for private sector representatives of the Turkish business community. The participants are expected to have role in the decision-making process of their respective companies and organizations to initiate and support more sustainable business practices. Principles of Sustainable development, EU accession process and sustainability, are the focused areas discussed over the courses.

Through a course on sustainable development and local action, representatives of municipalities, national governments and private companies in the Balkan area and in the countries which recently accessed the EU are encouraged to opt for sustainable development in order to halt environmental deterioration in their regions. The project includes a network of more than 35 experts trained in sustainable development, who can, among other things, act as a link between local and national governments. The programme is developed in cooperation with the Venice International University.

The course on sustainable development for Kazakhstan addressed to 40 senior officials in ministries and agencies. The course organised for Central and Eastern Europe - was held over one week in Astana and the remaining two week-long modules were held at VIU. The program, co-financed by BG Group, was technically supported also by the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC), Agroinnova and CEU.

In order to identify potential synergies and partnerships that allow the expansion of the REC’s activities in Central and Eastern Europe, a research and analysis project was carried out focusing on environmental programmes funded by the European Union, the World Bank and other international financial institutions linked to sustainable development. The analysis was completed with the publication of a feasibility study for Central Asia and Caucuses that examines the initiatives and programmes in the field of sustainable development, drawing up a strategy for the start-up of potential projects in the area.

The establishment of a task force to protect the Black Sea and its environment was the goal of the technical training project on sustainable development in the Black Sea region. The training programme aims to contributing to create conditions for introducing sustainable development, providing technical and practical tools in the field of sustainable development, transferring experience and know-how and on the implementation of sustainable development at regional, national and local levels. The training is divided into four modules and attracts the participation of about 60 representatives from the private sector and from the civil service. Two locations were chosen for the development of the training project: Istanbul (Bilgi University) and VIU.

The project aimed at developing the capacity of regional and local authorities, public service companies and other organisations to identify and prepare quality environmental investment projects and to facilitate partnerships between local authorities and Italian companies for the development of eco-projects for investment in Poland and Slovenia. The targets set by the project also included improving environmental management in these two countries and increasing their capacity for benefiting from European grants such as Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund. The training comprised both a theoretical and a practical element. Project partners were Societa’ generale di Ingegneria, Icaro and Ecoclub.

The REC prepared the agenda for a high-level workshop dedicated specifically to the integration of the environment into the economy of the enlarged Europe. The event was divided into three sessions: the integration of environmental concerns; the environmental aspects of the Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund; and the development of a national strategic environmental assessment (SEA) system.

The pamphlet Europe in the World was written in 2006 by Tom Burke and Nick Mabey, founders of E3G, an independent organisation created to accelerate the transition towards sustainable development. It was published with the support of the REC in collaboration with the Brussels think-tank The Centre, and the Willy Brandt Foundation, to promote Europe’s role as a trailblazer in the area of sustainable development. In 2007, the REC also translated the pamphlet into six languages (Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish and Hungarian) and more than 2,000 copies were circulated among key stakeholders in the countries concerned.

Since 2004, a series of communications projects have been undertaken with the purpose of strengthening the REC’s identity and informing the general public of the results achieved over the years. The main tool of this communications strategy is Green Horizon, which was launched in 2004 as a quarterly magazine and which has a readership of over 20,000 in Europe and throughout the world. In the four issues between September 2006 and June 2007, Green Horizon published a series of articles, interviews and reports describing simply and effectively the environmental improvements achieved in Central and Eastern Europe. The articles focused on the four ITF priorities: energy efficiency, climate, capacity building, and the creation of partnerships.

The project contributed towards building the management and leadership capacities of members of environmental non-governmental organisations in Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey. Ten groups participated in training courses for a total of 90 young environmentalists. The topics covered by the course were: protected areas, sustainable agriculture, water resources, waste disposal and energy efficiency.  Additional courses took place for five groups of young leaders and three groups of experts, focusing on waste management, energy and biodiversity.

Summer training courses were organised at CEU in Budapest in collaboration with UNDP. The courses focused on the theoretical bases of sustainable development; on identifying the tools necessary to adapt policies to the Millennium targets; and on providing the participants with knowledge on possible ways of customization of human development. 

The Convention on the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians, which was signed in Kiev in 2003, is a legislative tool for safeguarding the chain of mountains that traverses seven countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine. The two-phase project involved the European Academy, Bolzano (EURAC) and UNEP and supported the regional implementation of this important international convention.

The Adriatic can be considered the most vulnerable part of the Mediterranean Sea. In response to a Slovenian initiative, the REC developed the idea of a partnership for the Adriatic as an umbrella initiative involving all the littoral countries in order to ensure the protection and sustainable development of this region. The executions of individual projects fall in the framework of the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) and the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development. The first meeting of the countries adhering to the ASP (five of the six Adriatic countries) took place in Sarajevo in April 2007. The project also involved the ministries of the environment and environmental authorities from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Montenegro and Slovenia.

The REC provides support to the implementation of the environmental strategy of the 12 EECCA countries (Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia). The strategy, adopted during the 2003 Kiev Ministerial Conference, provides a framework to facilitate environmental partnerships between nations. The REC project helped to draw a draft programme to implement the environment strategy of the EECCA countries, and participated in the preparatory process for the “Kiev+1” Ministerial Conference, held in Georgia in October 2004.