European Commission

Russia & Eastern Neighbours

These countries share a legacy of environmental problems from the past, as well as new pressures as they return to economic growth. These include low energy efficiency, the poor state of environmental infrastructure, unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, and air pollution. Environmental legislation is being modernised and public participation and awareness of environmental challenges needs to be increased. There are important links between poverty and environmental factors such as access to clean drinking water in some of the countries. The region also possesses vast unspoilt and vulnerable areas, which require management and protection.

Environmental co-operation between the EU and the countries has developed mainly through the Partnership and Co-operation Agreements (PCA) and sub-committees as well as via the Tacis programme, replaced in 2007 by the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument. Environmental co-operation is increasing in importance for several reasons:

EU enlargement and the economic transformation of Russia and of Eastern Neighbours is increasing cross-border interaction and common interest in our shared environment.
Environment is also a cornerstone of the EU-Russia Strategic Partnership and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) which the EU developed with its neighbouring countries both to the East and South of its borders.
The countries are important partners in global, European regional and sub-regional environmental issues, such as climate change, the follow-up of the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, the 'Environment for Europe' process (Belgrade Conference in 2007), the Northern Dimension and co-operation in the Danube-Black Sea, Baltic and Arctic regions.
Better environmental policies bring significant economic and social benefits, as has been shown in the new Member States of the EU. The Commission has carried out an initial study of methodology to assess such benefits for Russia and the Eastern Neighbours (pdf~1,7Mb). It is hoped that this will form the basis for a fuller study of environmental benefits in the region (note: this study does not cover the nuclear sector). A test case illustrating the application of the methodology to Ukraine was conducted.

The Commission has just put forward a proposal for the creation of an Eastern Partnership to enhance our relationship with a number of Eastern countries through the adoption of measures such as enhanced agreements and progressive integration in the EU economy.

Russian Federation

The basis of EU-Russia relations is the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), which came into force on 1 December 1997 for an initial duration of 10 years. Discussions with Russia were launched in May 2008 on a new agreement for the EU-Russia strategic partnership. This will take account of the EU-Russia Common Economic Space road-map adopted in 2005 which determines the agenda for co-operation with Russia inter alia on environment in the medium-term.

Organisational changes in the Russian environmental administration from 2000 hampered environmental dialogue in the following years, but more recently there has been encouraging progress. The decision by Russia to ratify the Kyoto Protocol in December 2004 was an important step forward and has been followed by close contact between the EU and the Russian authorities on implementation of Kyoto. At the end of 2005 it was agreed to launch an EU-Russia Environmental Dialogue to implement the environmental priorities of the EU-Russia Common Economic Space road-map. The first meeting of the Permanent Partnership Council (PPC) on Environment was held in Helsinki in October 2006 to launch this Dialogue, which is led by DG Environment and the Russian Ministry for Natural Resources and Ecology.

The Environment Dialogue covers Climate Change, Biodiversity & Nature Protection, Water & Marine Issues, Forestry Law Enforcement, Cleaner Production & Pollution Control, Environmental Impact Assessment/Convergence of Environmental Policies. Expert EU-Russia Subgroups have been established in each of these areas.

The EU and Russia also co-operate on environment in the context of the Northern Dimension which addresses the specific challenges and opportunities arising in North-west Russia, the Baltic Sea and Arctic Sea region and aims to strengthen dialogue and cooperation between the EU, its member states and the northern countries including Russia, Norway and Iceland. The policy framework for the Northern Dimension from 2007, was adopted by the November 2006 EU-Russia Summit. The renewed ND policy is a common policy of all ND parties, notably including Russia, and the regional expression in the North of the EU-Russia Common Spaces, with an accent on environment and health. The Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP) is a partnership of the European Commission, several EU Member States, Russia, Norway and IFIs (EBRD, EIB, NIB, World Bank) to catalyse and leverage environmental investments with a focus on North-west Russia. The European Commission has contributed 30m euro towards non-nuclear projects under the NDEP Support Fund. NDPE grants have leveraged over € 500m IFI loans and € 1 billion investments.

Eastern Neighbours

The European Neighbourhood Policy covers, to the east of the EU, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Ukraine

EU relations with Ukraine are based on the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement, which entered into force in 1998 for an initial period of ten years. The negotiations for a "EU-Ukraine New Enhanced Agreement" started in March 2007.

In 2004, the Commission put forward a European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) Action Plan with Ukraine, which has since its endorsement by the EU-Ukraine Cooperation Council on 21 February 2005– become the most important instrument in the relations between the EU and Ukraine. The EU-Ukraine ENP Action Plan sets out a comprehensive set of priorities in areas within (such as Environment) and beyond the scope of the EU Ukraine Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. The Action Plan has been extended for 2008. In support of the Action Plan, the Commission has prepared in cooperation with the European Council an “Implementation Tool”, which provides benchmarks for assessing progress and assists Ukraine in reaching realistic and measurable results on the ground. Among the ENP Action Plan priority areas, several sectors including energy, transport and environment have been identified for enhanced cooperation. The environmental dialogue has been upgraded, visible particularly through intensified technical contacts in the areas of waste management and water, as well as by the reactivation in 2006 of the Ukraine-EU Working Group on Climate Change (initially launched in 2002).

Republic of Moldova

The Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) signed on 28 November 1994 between Moldova and the EU and its Members States entered into force on 1 July 1998 and forms the basis of EU Moldova relations. The PCA Agreement includes environment as a co-operation area. Environment issues also have a prominent place in the Action Plan under the European Neighbourhood Policy and are regularly followed-up in the PCA sub-committee for energy, environment, transport, science and education. At present Moldova is working to fulfil its obligations under the ENP Action Plan and to converge further its legislation towards the acquis communautaire in the field of environment. Moldova developed a number of concepts and programmes, inter alia Environmental Policy Concept, Sector Strategy on Environmental Protection and Sustainable Use of natural Resources, National Program for Ensuring Ecological Safety, Local Environmental Action Plans and recently (2007) National Programm on Environmental Security and Strategy on Water Supply and Sewerage Systems.
Moldova has gone through an Environmental Performance Review by the UN ECE during 2005.

Belarus

Belarus has no political agreement with the EU. Following the independence of Belarus in 1991, bilateral relations initially progressed well towards the adoption of a PCA negotiated in 1995 and an interim trade agreement. Both were however frozen as a result of the move towards authoritarian rule in 1996. The EU approach to relations with Belarus has two tracks:

Restrictions on political contacts,
Links with and assistance for other actors in civil society.

Belarus is not an active member of the ENP and there is no ENP Action Plan with Belarus. However Belarus is eligible for ENPI funding, including a national ENPI programme (€ 5 m per year). It is proposed that the 2008 programme will focus on environment.

The Commission and Belarus held expert technical discussions on environmental matters for the first time in February 2008. Further discussions will focus on climate change, water and waste management, biodiversity, permitting and implementation of multilateral environmental agreements.

Caucasus

The PCA-agreements for Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan all include environment and sustainable development as vital parts of the co-operation. The European Council decided in June 2005 to include Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the European Neighbourhood Policy. Country reports have been developed and ENP Action Plans, which include objectives for sustainable development and protection of the environment among their priority areas, have been adopted for these three countries.

EECCA Regional Environmental Centres (RECs).

The success of the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe based in Hungary served as a model for the establishment of five further RECs in 1998-2000. Four Centres currently operate in the EECCA region in Russia , Moldova , Caucasus and Central Asia . The RECs promote co-operation between member countries. Their mission is to strengthen links between central and local government, NGOs, business and academia in order to develop environmental civil society; to enhance dialogue between the European Union and the countries concerned; and to foster integration of environmental, economic and social policies.

In certain cases RECs also have a unique potential to address regional environmental problems that would not be tackled otherwise due to unsolved political issues between the countries (e.g. Caucasus ). Support of RECs is amongst the key priorities of the agreed European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plans for each of the relevant countries.

The idea of establishing regional environmental centres in the countries of the former Soviet Union emerged during the early Environment for Europe process and was formally endorsed in 1996 by European environment ministers attending the Sofia Conference. The Hungary-based REC for Central and Eastern Europe (REC CEE) was the initial model for the EECCA RECs, which were set up with the following mission in mind: “to assist in solving environmental problems in the NIS region through the promotion of cooperation at national and regional level among NGOs, governments, businesses, local communities, and all other stakeholders, in order to develop a free exchange of information, in line with the principles of the Aarhus Convention; offer assistance to all environmental NGOs and other stakeholders; and increase public participation in the decision-making process, thereby assisting the states of the NIS in the further development of a democratic civil society.”

Each REC is unique in terms of geographical area covered, political environment of the host country, the environmental problems in the countries served, and the needs of civil society in the various regions.

Black sea marine environment

In 1992 the Black Sea countries signed the Bucharest Convention for the protection of the Black sea against pollution and ever since the European Union, in close cooperation with other donors, has consistently contributed to the formulation and implementation of the longer-term Black Sea Strategic Action Plan (BS SAP, latest updated in 2009).

Following the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU, the Commission has declared EU membership to the Bucharest Convention a priority (Black Sea Synergy Communication). A range of projects managed by the Commission services (for example under ENP or implementing Preparatory Actions of the European Parliament) bring a direct benefit to the Black sea marine and coastal environment, in areas such as environmental monitoring, integrated coastal zone management, designation and management of marine protected areas, prevention of and emergency response to oil pollution from ships.

The Bucharest Convention can foster the regional cooperation required for the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive by Bulgaria and Romania and promote coordination and convergence of Black Sea countries' marine protection policies.