Transport Ministers Agree to Facilitate International Road Transport in South East Europe
At a Conference in Athens on 28 April 1999, Ministers of Transport of Albania, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Republic of Moldova, Romania, the former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia, and Turkey signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate
and liberalize international road transport of goods in Southeast Europe. Slovenia will
sign the MoU at a later stage.
The Ministerial Conference was
hosted by the Government of Greece in the framework of the Southeast European Cooperative
Initiative (SECI) which was launched in December 1996 as a support mechanism for the
Dayton Peace Agreement. The main objective of SECI is to encourage cooperation among its
participating States and to facilitate their integration into European structures. This
initiative is being supported by Austria, Italy, the Russian Federation, Switzerland and
the United States of America.
The MoU has been prepared by the SECI Project Group on Border Crossing Facilitation,
chaired by Mr. Y. Maniatis, Secretary-General at the Greek Ministry of Transport and
Communications with substantive assistance by the Transport Division of the ECE
secretariat. It addresses the most urgent problems and deficiencies of international road
transport and trade in Southeast Europe, which are due not only to a lack of adequate
infrastructure, but also to complex border crossing procedures and other institutional,
regulatory and economic barriers.
At the signing ceremony held at the closing of the Conference, the Executive Secretary of
the ECE, Mr. Y. Berthelot, stressed that, in spite of the complex and often sensitive
topics addressed in the MoU, the preparatory process that has led to its finalization was
characterized by a constructive, cooperative and friendly atmosphere. This demonstrated
the interest and willingness of the SECI participating States to find regional solutions
to common problems in fields that hinder economic and social development. He also
expressed hope that this MoU would send a positive signal and be an incentive to all
participating States in Southeast Europe to act in the same manner in other regional
activities within or outside of the SECI initiative.
ECE Convention to Prevent Water-related Diseases
At the dawn of the new millenium, cholera, typhoid fever and
hepatitis A and water-related diseases, often associated with developing countries or
perhaps medieval Europe, are making a comeback in some European countries. In the past
decade there have been some 190 outbreaks of bacterial dysentery, 70 outbreaks of
hepatitis A and 45 outbreaks of typhoid fever associated with drinking water and
recreational water in Europe and central Asia.
Other water-related diseases are hitting even countries otherwise known for their high
level of sanitation. In Sweden in the past decade, for example, there have been six
outbreaks of waterborne campylobacteriosis, which causes gastroenteritis. A total of 27
000 people suffered from waterborne disease in Sweden in the last ten years.
The Protocol on Water and Health to the ECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes should help ensure safe drinking water and recreational water to people throughout Europe. The Protocol has been drawn up under the auspices of ECE and the WHO Regional Office for Europe, and it was signed at the Third Ministerial Conference for Environment and Health, in London on 16-18 June.
Entering
the EU Single Gas Market: Challenges for Central and Eastern European Countries
The new EU directive which promotes a single gas market for Europe constitutes an additional challenge for Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). It comes on the heels of the current restructuring that was required in moving from a centralized planned system to a market-oriented one. Most of CEECs have only started their process of privatisation and for most of them the access to the EU or to its single market will mean an increase in the price of their gas. It is a great challenge, which will require careful preparation.
This is the reason why ECE's Gas Centre
organised a task force to assist CEECs in implementing the EU Gas Directive and to promote
the transfer of experience from EU to CEECs-based companies. The task force held its first
meeting in March of 1999 at the Szirák castle in Hungary. The meeting was co-organised
and hosted by MOL, the Hungarian oil and gas company. During the meeting, three CEECs
cases were presented: Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. The presentations and
discussions demonstrated the need for a step-by-step approach to market liberalisation in
CEECs preserving security of supply and the financial health of the gas operators and the
importance of the EU Gas Directive as one of the elements of market restructuring and
liberalisation.
The meeting was attended by 43 participants
from 17 countries, representing key officials from MOL and the Hungarian Ministry of
Economy, the European Commission DG XVII, the European gas industry, key experts and the
ECE. A second meeting will be organised in October by OMV, the Austrian oil and gas
company.
Economic Commission for Europe Discusses its Contribution to Recovery in Southeastern Europe after a Settlement of the Conflict in Yugoslavia
During its 54th Commission session, held in
Geneva on 4-6 May 1999, ECE circulated a paper entitled "Recovery in Southeast Europe
after a settlement of the conflict in Yugoslavia." The paper stressed three points
which were important for the future: the need to set up a programme for reconstruction or
economic recovery for the entire south-east area, which should take into account the
situation that existed before the conflict; the need to rebuild infrastructures in the
area, and to speed up institutional and structural reforms; the need to re-establish
normal economic relations between the countries of the region and to integrate them
economically into Europe as a whole.
The paper stated that ECE should
contribute to any machinery set up by the international community conjointly with any
other regional or national programmes in areas where the ECE had expertise, for example in
the areas of transport, energy, statistics, and habitat. There were conventions, standards
and norms in all these areas, and the ECE could therefore help countries to implement
these, thereby speeding up the reform process. These standards facilitated good relations
and economic integration, since they encouraged cooperation and common standards.
Green Rights Convention Takes World by Storm
A record 39 of ECE's 55 member States and the
European Community have already signed the Convention on Access to Information, Public
Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, and
others will follow suit. The Convention was signed in Aarhus, Denmark on 25 June 1998, and
since then countries as diverse as Albania, Denmark, Georgia, Hungary and Lithuania are
now putting legislation in place to give their citizens a stronger voice in environmental
decision-making.
The Convention contains obligations on the part of the public authorities towards the public at large. It lays down detailed requirements in terms of openness and transparency in decision-making process and access to all environmental information. The implementation of the Convention will strengthen both environmental protection and democracy throughout the ECE region.
Less than one year after the Convention's
adoption in Aarhus, the Signatories met in Chisinau, the capital of the Republic of
Moldova, on 19-21 April to review issues such as the Convention's application to
genetically modified organisms, to pollution release and transfer registers. During the
meeting, Moldova became the first country to ratify the Convention.
Regional Commissions Home Pages
ECE: www.unece.org
ESCAP: www.unescap.org
ECLAC: www.eclac.cl
ECA: www.un.org/Depts/eca
ESCWA: www.escwa.org.lb
Regional Commissions Newsletters: www.un.org/News/facts.htm
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