What’s the EU Commission’s take on the countries of the region, when it comes to their progress in Chapter 27, and why does it seem that no one has a reason to be proud of their progress?

The European Union is one of the global leaders in sustainable development, environment protection and fight against climate change. The criteria that candidate countries have to meet are pretty high.

EU Country Reports provide an overview of progress of all Western Balkans countries in Chapter 27: environment protection, divided into following areas: climate change, water quality, air quality, waste management, nature protection, industrial pollution, chemicals, noise and civil protection. Once we “translate” all the findings of the Reports related to environment, to a scale applied for school grades, we can say that, in total, we scored 2,3 out of 5(1).

Albania demonstrated a certain level of preparedness in this area (2/5). A certain progress (3/5) has been achieved in further harmonization of policy and legislation with EU Acquis. The European Parliament advised the Government of Albania in 2016 to stop the plans for building hydropower plants on Vjosa river and its river basin, as well as to establish a national park in that area. That would ensure proper protection of that area, which is something many CSOs from Albania and other countries advocate for. However, these hydropower plans remained intact, which still imposes a threat to the Blue heart of Europe. It’s almost certain that this is the reason why there’s a recommendation for Albania to develop legal, institutional and political framework for water protection and particularly improve implementation of environmental impact assessment procedures for hydropower projects, construction and mining.

Bosnia and Herzegovina filled out and submitted the EU Commission questionnaire for assessing the level of preparedness of a candidate state to take over the responsibilities arising from membership and the Commission has started with developing its “avis”. While this document is still in the making, an ad hoc report on BIH has been issued, as a part of the 2018 Enlargement plan for the Western Balkans and Turkey. A complete overview of conditions in BIH in comparison with EU accession criteria, including the analysis on the state of environment will be given in the expected “avis”. What could be noted from the statistical data provided in this year’s Commission’s Report is the fact that BIH hasn’t ensured access to all important information on the state of the environment. For example, there is no data on greenhouse gas emissions compared with 1990 as a base year. The data on share of renewables in electricity consumption for 2016 show that the share amounted to 31,8% in that year, which shows a decrease compared with 2015 (35,5%) and 2014 (36,7%).

Kosovo is in the early preparedness phase (1/5) in the area of environment and climate change. No progress has been achieved (2/5), with environmental issues seriously affecting lives of citizens and their health.

Among all the Western Balkan countries, Kosovo had the least progress in the area of environment and climate change. Many factors contributed to this: inefficient monitoring system for air and water quality, no legal framework that would ensure proper work of environmental inspectors, lack of capacities of inspectorates, many illegal landfills (305 in just one municipality – Peja)(2), insufficient funding for environment protection, amounting to 1% of GDP…The Commission recommends improvements in households waste management system in order to deal with illegal landfills, enforcement of “polluter pays” principle, raising awareness of the public and implementation of efficient quality monitoring systems for air and water in real time in order to ensure timely reactions and interventions.

Macedonia has achieved a certain level of preparedness (2/5) in this area. A certain progress (3/5) has been achieved in harmonization of policies and legislation with the EU Acquis.

Macedonia has adopted the National Strategy on Environment Protection and Climate Change, however the administrative capacities are still poor. Macedonia, as well as other countries, was also reminded in its Report to make additional effort to ensure public participation in the decision making processes regarding environment protection, especially environmental impact assessment process. The situation which is being repeated year after year, especially during winter, is the Government introducing the state of emergency in multiple cities because of air pollution. Skopje is one of the cities with the most polluted air in Europe(3). The Commission recommended Macedonia to give particular emphasis to improving cooperation between the Government, state institutions and municipalities in order to ensure cooperation improving air quality. Another recommendation on air quality is related to expanding the monitoring network and enforcing it with additional human resources, finances and technical capacities.

Serbia has achieved a certain level of preparedness (2/5) in the area of environmental protection. A certain progress (3/5) has been achieved in further aligning with the EU Acquis and strategic planning.

(You can find out more about threatening pollution levels, poor progress in water and waste management, data (in)accuracy on GHG emissions in the text dedicated to Serbia’s progress in Chapter 27(4). 

Montenegro has achieved a certain level of preparedness (2/5) in environmental protection. A certain progress (3/5) was achieved in further harmonization with the EU Acquis. Montenegro was obliged to achieve 25% target for recycling(5) by the end of 2017, according to its Law on Waste Management. However, the Report states that no progress has been achieved in this matter. Therefore, calling for urgent action on closing illegal landfills was included in this Report, since Montenegro is yet to implement a well-defined waste management system. As for protecting maritime areas, the process is still in the initial phase. The Commission calls for action in order to ensure protection of potential Natura 2000 locations(6), such as Ulcinj Salina. There’s a risk of neglecting environmental protection due to tourism development, in countries that have such potential, which was also addressed by the EU Commission in this Report, reminding that any further investments in tourism development, as well as other projects, such as hydropower projects, have to be carried out in compliance with environmental standards.

(1) This does not include Bosnia and Herzegovina, since the European Commission has published a different, Intermediary Report for this country.
(2) More on this topic: http://www.rtvpuls.com/vesti/kosovo_najzagadjenije_mesto_u_evropi/17017 
(3) More on this topic: https://balkangreenenergynews.com/rs/skoplje-ima-najzagadeniji-vazduh-od-svih-gradova-evrope/
(4) https://stari.bos.rs/ekz-eng/news/425/2018/04/27/environmental-protection--we-havent-made-much-progress.html
(5) http://www.greenhome.co.me/index.php?IDSP=1078&jezik=lat
(6) http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/natura2000/index_en.htm

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