Cooperation through the eyes of journalists in the East

Projects in Action – Eastern Neighbours2 Projects in Action – Eastern Neighbours 3

FOREWORD A flavour of neighbourhood cooperation

FOREWORD

“What exactly are you achieving with all this money?” This is a key question we are asked on a daily basis when we talk about cooperation with our Neighbours in public. Explaining projects in their specific context is difficult enough. But what is even more difficult is to show the concrete added value of our Regional cooperation.

Our best link to the public in the Neighbourhood countries is the media that can capture, analyse, and finally, tell a story.

I’m therefore proud to present this first story magazine, written through the ENPI Info Centre under the Regional Information and Communication Programme. The Partnership through “the eyes of the journalists” is meant to give readers a flavour of our cooperation in the 16 countries benefiting from the European Neighbourhood Partnership Instrument. And, hopefully, it will help to give an answer to the recurrent question on what exactly we achieve.

Marcus Cornaro

Director Europe, Southern Mediterranean, Middle-East and Neighbourhood Policy

EuropeAid Development and Co-operation Directorate-General

A flavour of Neighbourhood cooperation

No political boundaries for forests Interview with Alexei Grigoriev 43

Saving the Black Sea by Ilona Iarmoliuk – Ukraine 44

Purer water for the Caspian Sea by Shahin Abbasov – Azerbaijan 47

TransportFirst TRACECA Investment Forum may help propel Moldovan apples to European supermarkets by ENPI Info Centre – Moldova 61

Safer ports in cleaner waters: towards international standards of maritime safety by Shahin Abbasov – Azerbaijan 64

Maritime highways to unlock a key transport route Interview with Marc Abeille 67

Better regulations for safer air travel in TRACECA Partner Interview with Thibault Raisson 68

At the cross-roads of development by Shahin Abbasov – Azerbaijan 69

The big IDEA: coordination for an ambitious programme Interview with Ashraf Hamed 73

A faster and safer railway for Armenia by Aghavni Harutyunyan – Armenia 74

TRACECA training: teaching the teachers to teach Interview with Rene Meeuws 77

Find out more 78

IndexA flavour of Neighbourhood cooperation 3

Regional cooperation through the eyes of journalists 6

Our network of journalists 8

PeopleEducation with European standards by Shahin Abbasov – Azerbaijan 11

Students, parents and teachers to heal the wounds of Chernobyl by ITAR TASS/ENPI Info Centre – Belarus 14

BikeLand is transforming Ukrainian Carpathians by Irina Tuz – Ukraine 17

Working across borders to bring people together Interview with Bodil Person 20

Will Europe save the old house in Vladimir? by ITAR TASS/ENPI Info Centre – Russia 22

Local authorities – a bridge across the neighbourhood Interview with Frank Samol 25

EnvironmentBorders Divide Countries not Rivers by Irina Severin – Moldova 27

Rivers to bridge the Caucasus divide by Aghavni Harutyunyan – Armenia 30

Managing water resources by Iryna Tuz – Ukraine 33

Water quality at stake Interview with Steve Warren 36

Forest protection and cranberry pies by ITAR-TASS/ENPI Info Centre – Russia 37

Moldovan Forest under EU Protection by Dmitri KALAK – Moldova 40

EnergyCarbon footprints leading into the future by Iryna Tuz – Ukraine 51

South Caucasus united by common electricity grid by Maia Edilashvili – Georgia 55

Blending loans and grants to finance investments for the Neighbourhood Interview with Richard Weber 58


Telling the story

The ENPI Info Centre, in cooperation with journalists and photog-raphers in the partner countries, has tracked down, written about and photographed some of the projects funded. The journalists re-searched projects’ activities and spoke to the people who have ben-efited from them about their experiences, what they have gained, their considerations and thoughts about the future. On their part, the photographers captured the story with their lens.

This magazine includes stories covered in 2010, and gives a flavour of Neighbourhood Cooperation on the ground. The reportages are divided into four main categories: people, energy, environment, transport.

They tell the story of a Partnership.

All the stories are available on the “Feature Section” of the ENPI Info Centre’s website www.enpi-info.eu in English, French, Russian and Arabic, depending on the country.

Detailed information on and news from the Regional projects funded is also available on the ENPI Info Centre Website.

Cooperation between the European Union and the countries participating in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and benefiting from the Euro-pean Neighbourhood Partnership Instrument (ENPI) exists on two levels. The first is the political. The meetings where leaders get together to decide the policy areas on which emphasis should be given. The second deals with turning these decisions into actions on the ground, through the funding of projects, of-fering the Partners practical support in their efforts to bring about change and modernization.

This support is given to Partners mainly on a bilateral level. However, there is a regional dimension, whereby funds are allocated to projects involving more than one Neighbourhood country. This regional cooperation programme is managed by EuropeAid.

It brings partner countries around the table to discuss and act upon issues of common interest, be they economic, political or cultural. It supports over 80 programmes and projects in both the Eastern European Neighbour countries and in the Southern Neighbours. These programmes have a direct or indirect impact on the lives of ordinary citizens. Through the projects funded, new poli-cies and actions are promoted within the countries themselves, an on-going dialogue is maintained and relationships and networks are built.

Regional cooperation is truly a “Channel of Change” in 16 countries, namely:Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Moldova, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Russia, Syria, Tunisia, Ukraine.

Regional cooperation through the eyes of journalists


Aghavni Harutyunyan is an Armenian journalist based in Yerevan. She attended several local and foreign training programmes in journalism. Since 2001, Aghavni Harutyunyan has been covering regional issues, conflicts in South Caucasus, legal and human rights issues working for the AZG Armenian Daily.

Maia Edilashvili is a Georgian journalist presently working as assistant editor and contributor with the Tbilisi-based English bimonthly magazine Investor.ge. She attended several international training programmes in journalism.

Shahin Abbasov is an Azerbaijani journalist and correspondent of Eurasianet, a New York based on-line resource in Azerbaijan. Previously he contributed to Country Forecast on Azerbaijan for EIU (Economist Intelligence Unit, London) and worked as a correspondent and editor-in-chief for several leading Azerbaijani newspapers. He attended several international programmes for researchers and journalists in the US, Germany, France, Morocco, Turkey and Ukraine.

Iryna Tuz is a Ukrainian journalist and correspondent of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Kyiv. Prior to this she worked as an Information Expert of the EU-funded project “The Implementation of Twinning Operations in Ukraine”.

Dmitri Сalaс is a Moldovan journalist based in Chisinau. He is deputy editor-in-chief of “Ekonomicheskoe obozrenie” (Economic Survey), a weekly private newspaper. Dmitri Calac attended several training programmes for journalists including a course offered by the Berlin Institute for European Politics (2003) and a summer school on investigative journalism in St-Petersburg (2002).

Irina Severin is a Moldovan freelance journalist based in Chisinau. She is a regular contributor to RFE/RL broadcasts and a communications consultant. Her professional experience also includes work as a columnist for the Analytique newspaper in Chisinau and a TACIS Communications Expert for the “Border Management – Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures in Moldova” Project.

Our network of journalists

Journalists collaborating with the ENPI Info Centre.

Partner news agencies: CNA/ITARTASS.

Ilona Iarmoliuk is a Ukrainian journalist based in Kyiv. She is a correspondent for the “Ukrainian News” nationwide news agency focusing on international relations. Prior to that she worked for an Internet Daily newspaper, proUA, which specializes in Ukraine’s domestic policy.


Education with European standards

PeopleEnergyEnvironment Transport

People

Baku – More than 20 projects worth €6 million have been implemented in Azerbaijan since 1995 under the EU-funded programmes Tempus and Erasmus Mundus. Thanks to Tempus, says Parviz Bagirov, head of the National Tempus Office in Azerbaijan, universities have enriched their curriculums in engineering, oil and gas, civic avia-tion, management of emergency situations, environmental studies, economy, for-eign languages, ICT subjects and European studies. And what’s important, he adds, sectors and subjects for cooperation have been chosen by the Azerbaijani side. The European Union Tempus programme offers many forms of cooperation, which include experience sharing in European education standards, elaboration of educa-tional agendas, provision of modern teaching literature, professional training, stud-ies abroad, improvement of university management and reform.The Azerbaijani State Oil Academy and the State University of Sumgayit have im-plemented a joint project with the University of Cologne (Germany) to improve the teaching of energy resources management. “It was a long and successful project, approved and renewed by the EU several times,” Bagirov said. Finally the work re-ceived support of the Azerbaijani government and ‘Energy resources management’ became a separate subject at graduate level.

Tempus success storyAnother Tempus success story is the establishment of an immunology laboratory at the Azerbaijan Medical Univer-sity (AMU). “It is the only research lab on immunology, not just at AMU but in Azerbaijan as a whole,” Parviz Bagirov said. “Before, there was no immunology lab at the AMU,” said Professor Gulnara Nasrullayeva, head of immunology at the Azerbaijan Medical University. AMU joined Tempus in 2003 along with universities from Georgia, Armenia, UK, France and Italy. As a result, the EU funded the establishment of the first immunology lab in Azerbaijan. “The facility is equipped

“I really enjoyed studying and being in touch with young people from many European countries. It turned me into a more open-minded person, aware of European culture and values”

N The EU-funded immunology lab at the Azerbaijan Medical University is the first such facility in Azerbaijan.

“It was just cool,” says Zaur Mutallimov, a student from the Azerbaijan Tourism Institute on his return from an exchange programme in Portugal. “I really enjoyed studying and being in touch with young people from many European countries. It turned me into a more open-minded person, aware of European culture and values.” About 100 people from Azerbaijan have benefited from the country’s participation in the EU-funded Erasmus Mundus programme over the last three years – enough to launch an Alumni Network of EU education programmes in the country.

Text and photos by Shahin Abbasov

AzERbAijAn


Timeframe2008-2013

Budgetapproximately € 35-39 million per year (ENPI)

Participating countriesArmenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine (East) Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, occupied Palestinian territory, Syria, Tunisia (South)

Timeframe2009-2010

Budget€ 29 million

ObjectiveThe Trans-European Mobility Scheme for University Studies (Tempus) supports the effort of the Partner Countries to modernize their higher education systems and creates opportunities for cooperation among higher education actors of the EU and the participating countries through joint projects. It also enhances understanding between cultures as it promotes a people-to-people approach and promotes convergence with EU developments in higher education leading to more jobs and growth.

ObjectiveThe Erasmus Mundus II - Action 2 Partnerships seeks to promote better understanding and mutual enrichment between the EU and third countries and in the medium term strengthens political, cultural, educational and economic links.

Supports the modernisation of higher education, creates opportunities for cooperation among actors in the field and enhances understanding

Promotes cooperation between higher education institutions through encouraging partnerships, mobility and exchanges of students, researchers and academic staff.

TEMPUS IV for higher education

Erasmus Mundus II – Action 2 Partnerships

Participating countriesArmenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine (East) Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, occupied Palestinian territory, Syria, Tunisia (South)

Find out moreTempus IV http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/tempus/index_en.phpTempus in Azerbaijan www.tempus-az.org/ENPI Info Centre webpage – Tempus www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=248&id_type=10ENPI Info Centre webpage – Erasmus Mundus II www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=246&id_type=10

with modern medical equipment and has trained personnel,” Nasrullayeva said, add-ing the lab is part of the teaching process while also conducting modern research. In 2005, a special immunology course was introduced at AMU thanks to Tempus. Four top students from AMU went to the University of Westminster and to University College London in the UK to study immunology. Then two of them were trained in France. Three of these students are now immunology teachers at AMU, Professor Nasrullayeva said. Thanks to contacts her university maintained with its European partners, a new three-year grant agreement within Tempus was signed in 2010 that would help in-troduce a distance learning method of teaching immunology to graduate students. The most successful students will be granted Masters’ diplomas of two universities – AMU and the University of Westminster. Regional universities also benefit from the programme, for example in Ganja, Na-kchivan, Sumgayit, Lankaran and Mingachevir, where they take an active part in the process, Bagirov said. Another EU-financed education programme, Erasmus Mundus, has been operation-al in Azerbaijan since 2007. It is a cooperation and mobility programme in the field of higher education that supports student and teacher exchange and cooperation between the EU and local universities.

Numbers to increaseMore young Azerbaijanis are pursuing a European education, with about 2,000 cur-rently at European universities. Azerbaijan’s Education Minister, Misir Mardanov, said recently that the numbers would increase with the implementation of the State pro-gramme on funding university studies abroad for 2008-2015. Erasmus Mundus is one of the vehicles providing additional possibilities to study in Europe. A consortium of three universities, the Azerbaijan State Tourism Institute (ATI), Ganja State University, and the private Khazar University, was established in Azerbaijan in the frame of Erasmus Mundus. Nigar Abbaszade, head of International affairs and projects department at ATI, says similar consortia were established in Georgia and Armenia, together with an international consortium of 18 universities from Azerbai-jan, Georgia, Armenia, Greece, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania, Portugal, the Netherlands and France. About 100 people from Azerbaijan have benefited from the country’s participation in Erasmus Mundus in three years. Abbaszade says they are all professionals who will not have problems finding good jobs. Parviz Bagirov from the National Tempus office adds the Alumni Network of EU education programmes will be created in Azerbaijan this year, and will “facilitate and promote exchanges within Erasmus Mundus.” “Erasmus Mundus is very positive as it gives young Azerbaijanis a chance to visit Europe, to study there and be more attached to European values,” Nigar Abbaszade

from ATI said. She recalls a girl from an IDP family who had grown up in a refugee camp. Her father was killed during the Kara-bakh war. “Despite tough living conditions, she passed university exams, learned Eng-lish and took part in Erasmus Mundus. The programme changed her a lot – from a shy girl she turned into a young, self-confident leader,” Abbaszade said. It is not the only example. “Young people change a lot for the better as a result of Er-asmus Mundus exchanges. They get new knowledge, skills, and learn to live in a multi-cultural environment,” Abbaszade said.

“Erasmus Mundus is very positive as it gives young Azerbaijanis a chance to visit Europe, to study there and be more attached to European values”

N A new secondary school in Baku – the government invests part of its oil revenues into education infrastructure improvement.

“Young people change a lot for the better as a result of Erasmus Mundus exchanges. They get new knowledge, skills, and learn to live in a multi-cultural environment”


by local authorities and residents proper. “The idea behind this project,” explains An-drey Pinigin, the project manager, “is to improve quality of life through a specific interaction between local communities and administrative bodies. Together, com-mon people and authorities are identifying and addressing the most urgent social and economic problems of a particular region.” And thanks to the project, some of theses problems find an immediate solution. “The idea of a dynamic interaction between communities and administrations is quite new,” continues Pinigin, “and that is why one of the most important elements of our initiative is the organisation of training sessions and workshops for all programme participants. We hope that the interaction model we are establishing could in future spread throughout Belarus.” But there is more to this project than community participation, says Pinigin: “The condition for including each initiative into the project was equal financial participa-tion of the Belarusian side.” Local administrations, communities and international donors have thus joined their efforts in support of something that is more than just a selection of initiatives, but a vision of local development. The project has been of-ficially endorsed by the Government of Belarus, which has put in charge the Ministry for Emergency Situations. Other partners are the Gomel Executive Committee, as well as executive committees of four administrative districts in Gomel region – Buda-Koshelev, Vetka, Zhitkovichi and Hoiniki, where the project operates.

School is our home!Out of the 60 initiatives submitted under the project, many have already been im-plemented. In the farming town of Krivsk a music school has been opened; an anti flash-flood dam has been built in Zapesochiye; in five villages of Buda-Kosheleb, 27 drinking water wells have been restored, while in Velikiye Nemki the secondary school has changed beyond recognition as a result of a fundamental overhaul. In September 2010, three projects were completed in the same region: after ma-jor refurbishing a school was opened in Pyhan, a kindergarten in Vetka and the Centre for Correctional-Developmental Training and Rehabilitation for children with special needs was inaugurated in the town of Hoiniki. Thanks to the finan-cial support received, Vetka kindergar-ten has been provided with game sets aimed at helping children improve their skills, as well as up-to-date physiothera-peutic equipment. Rooms were also refurbished, for a total disbursement of €22,600 from the EU and UN, while Be-larusian partners matched the funding.

“What has been achieved here thanks to the joint efforts of parents and teachers, as well as local, national and international organizations, is impressive: it is a celebration of life”

“Together, common people and authorities are identifying and addressing the most urgent social and economic problems of a particular region”

N The opening of the wells after renovation.

Minsk – Refurbishing a school; equipping a rehabilitation centre for children with special needs; providing games and physiotherapeutic support to a kindergarten: in a word, healing a suffering territory through community-based small scale projects, mainly addressing children and youth needs. This is the overall aim of a EU-UNDP joint project, launched in August 2010 to the tune of €2.2 million to minimize the consequences of the Chernobyl accident in the territory of the Republic of Belarus.

Bringing together communities and local administrationsThe project took off in August 2010 and was due to be completed by the end of 2010. Sixty different initiatives are being implemented within the project frame-work. Their overall purpose is to improve people’s life and to rehabilitate a territory which has suffered enormously from the consequences of the Chernobyl accident. What is peculiar about the project, is that individual initiatives are being suggested

Students, parents and teachers to heal the wounds of Chernobyl How do you deal with the consequences of such a disaster as Chernobyl after so many years? In a town in Belarus, some students, teachers and parents have joined efforts and refurbished a school. In other villages, people have equipped their kindergarten, or opened a music school, or restored drinking water wells. This is how a joint EU-UNDP Programme – funded to minimize the consequences of the Chernobyl accident – is bringing local communities and administrations together to heal the suffering and to improve the quality of life.

Text by ITAR TASS/ENPI Info Centre Photos by ITAR TASS/UNDP

bElARus


Two years ago, people in Yaremche, Western Ukraine, started thinking about an alternative to the traditional skiing, and borrowed the idea of bicycle tourism from Europe. Several enthusiasts - supported by a Cross Border Cooperation programme funded by the EU to the tune of €512,000 - decided to lay out cycling routes, to publish the maps and to get local people interested in hosting cycling tourists. This is how the BikeLand project began.

Text and photos by Iryna Tuz

Yaremche – Dmitry Boiko is surrounded by bicycles of all conceivable shapes and sizes. There are moun-tain bikes, a white tandem bicycle, a battery-driven bike, as well as children’s seats, gloves and helmets. Dmitry works at a bicycle rental agency called Velo-tur, which opened in May 2010 in the small town of Yaremche, in the Carpathian Mountains. Here jobs are available mostly in winter, when tourists come to ski. In the summer, the chance of finding an occupa-tion is slim. But bicycle tours came to help. “Thanks to the BikeLand project,” says Dmitry, “many tourists find out about cycling sports for the first time. And new employment opportunities are created.”

It is to everyone’s advantageIt is not by chance that the Carpathians were chosen: this region is undergoing a deep economic crisis.

From skiers to cyclists: BikeLand is

transforming the Ukrainian

Carpathians

Now teachers at the kindergarten are able to put in place a comprehensive system for physical develop-ment and rehabilitation, using traditional and non-traditional physical exercise and herbal therapy. As for the school in Pyhan, the project’s authors called their initiative “School is Our Home!”. Here, the students themselves, their parents and teach-ers – 50 volunteers all together – managed to raise the funds to match the international support. For the first time in 20 years, and thanks to the build-ing skills acquired by the volunteers, the school was refurbished, opening its door to enthusiastic pupils

who could proudly sit in rooms they themselves had helped to restore. Finally, the 300 kids with special needs living in Hoiniki region will benefit immense-ly from the new equipment acquired through the project by the Centre for Correc-tional-Developmental Training and Rehabilitation for children with special needs of Hoiniki town. Recently, the children from the Centre have won prizes in regional and national arts festivals, including a ballet festival called “The Autumn Express”.

Jumping on a trampoline to celebrate lifeCompleting all three projects at once has been a big event for the local communi-ties. Adults and children have celebrated their accomplishment through a number of fairs, concerts, theatre performances and competitions. In Hoiniki on inauguration day, guests visiting the Rehabilitation Centre ended up jumping on the trampoline with the children… “These funds are invested into our future: our kids.” This is what Jean-Eric Holzapfel, Chargé d’affaires for the European Union in Belarus, had to say about this project. “What has been achieved here thanks to the joint ef-forts of parents and teachers, as well as local, national and international organiza-tions, is impressive: it is a celebration of life.”

“These funds are invested into our future: our kids”

Participating countriesBelarus (Minsk, Mogilev and Gomel districts)

Timeframe2009-2010

Budget€1,504,259

ObjectiveThe project aims to enhance the livelihoods of rural residents in the Chernobyl-affected areas of Belarus. This is done through the promotion of participatory community development approach, meaning that the planned output of the project is a working model of interaction and cooperation between the rural residents, the local authorities and other organizations and institutions. Find out moreProject fiche http://undp.by/en/undp/db/ac732319d40cdfd9.htmlProject results http://undp.by/en/undp/doc/ee6418705ce01.html

Specific socio-economic problems in the Chernobyl-affected areas of Belarus are addressed through a participatory community development approach. Projects are selected thanks to a dynamic interaction between local communities and administrations. International EU and UN funding are being matched by an equal participation of the Belarus side.

Area Based Development of the Chernobyl-Affected Areas of Belarus

http://undp.by/en/undp/db/ac732319d40cdfd9.html

N Young patients and staff of the Centre for Correctional-Developmental Training in Hoiniki.

ukRAinE


What Victor Zagreba is aiming at is a deep cultural change: “I have been in Europe and the bicycle is part of European culture, part of everyday life there. Government officials and mayors all use bicycles. In Ukraine, it is not as popular yet, but our proj-ect is promoting the bicycle idea because it is great, cool and fashionable, it is a democratic means of transport and recreation, and a pastime that is environmen-tally friendly and local culture conscious, as well as good for your health.”

Bicycle as a vehicle For Yuri Karpin, Head of the Recreation Department in Yaremche District Council, the bicycle is a nice way to spend time with family and friends, as well as a means to keep fit. According to him, local people have recently changed their attitude to the bicycle. They have realized that cyclists are tourists who can bring profit. Bike rentals are being opened for holiday-makers, and the number of people who come with their own bicycles has grown about three times since the start of the project, although official data is not yet available. “The bicycle makes tourists stay in the Carpathians longer,” says Karpin. “One day they can go on a walking tour, the next day they can drive a quadro-cycle, and on the third rent a bicycle.” BikeLand was at first designed for the Carpathians, where bicycle tourism was given a powerful impetus. Now the organizers are sure that it will cross these boundaries. One day everybody in Ukraine will mount their bicycles and the country will turn into a BikeLand in the true sense of the word – this is what Victor Za-greba and his team believe in.

N The beauty of the Carpathian mountains is one of the major attractions for bicycle tourists to visit.

“Our main challenge now is to make sure that the whole idea and network of BikeLand is preserved”

With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, logging stopped almost entirely, so many Ukrainians have been forced to look for seasonal jobs in the EU or Russia. The overall objective of the EU-backed initiative is to attract Ukrainian and foreign tourists through the creation of biking networks and facilities, and through an ap-propriate information campaign. A highly competent and dedicated team of people was put together to manage the project. Many local associations have joined in, em-barking on the task of spreading the word about new tourism opportunities in the region. And two years down the road – the project started in 2008 and ended in July 2010– local residents welcome cycling as a good source of income. Natalya, the owner of a guesthouse, has been putting up tourists for six years; last year her usual skiers were supplemented by cyclists. Her B&B ‘Nastusya’ is equipped to receive cyclists. This means tourists who come with their own bikes can leave them in a special parking space and wash them after a trip in rainy weather. This status has been granted to her guesthouse as a result of a competition, which was conducted by the BikeLand project. “The winners of the competition,” she says, “were given Karcher washers, an allowance for building a bike-parking station, and were included in the tourist catalogue which gives information about the region, advises on what to see and where to stay and have a meal.”

Cycling enthusiasts“Four wheels carry the body, two wheels carry the soul.” This is the motto of Vic-tor Zagreba, BikeLand’s project leader. He was among the enthusiasts who began developing bicycle tourism in western Ukraine: “In winter, the Carpathians do not need any advertising,” Victor explains, adding: “Everywhere you look, you see tourists with skis on their shoulders. While in summer the cottages stay empty. This is how we came upon the idea of the project – increasing the influx of tourists in between the skiing seasons. On a larger scale, our mission is economic development of the region.” In order to achieve their aim, Zagreba’s team followed two parallel tracks: creating “hard” and “soft” infrastructure. The first category includes cycling routes and the BikeLand network, incorporating guesthouses and recreational facilities. The second involves disseminating information on what has been done and promoting active lifestyle in general. “We have published quite a number of maps, brochures, cata-logues and magazines in Ukrainian, Russian and English, as well as calendars, stick-ers, advertisements in the media and press-tours,” says Zagreba. However, the project leader feels there is more to be done: “The financial support from the EU ended in July 2010, and it was obvious that our overall objective could not be achieved within the two-year duration of the project. Our main challenge now is to make sure that the whole idea and network of BikeLand is preserved.”

“The bicycle makes tourists stay in the Carpathians longer”

“On a larger scale, our mission is economic development of the region”

N Velotur bicycle rental agency’s shop in the small town of Yaremche, in the Carpathian Mountains.

Participating countriesRomania, Ukraine

Timeframe2008-2010

Budget€ 572680 (EU co-funding € 512680 under PHARE Cross Border Cooperation and TACIS)

ObjectiveThe project aims to create and maintain a network of biking and hiking routes and facilities for bicycle tourists; by doing so it seeks to create new opportunities for local economic activity Find out moreENPI Info Centre webpage – Environment www.enpi-info.eu/list_projects_east.php?subject=6ENPI Info Centre webpage – Economy www.enpi-info.eu/list_projects_east.php?subject=4EU Neighbourhood Programme - Romania-Ukraine www.susidstvo.od.ua/page.php?45/

Helps attract Ukrainian and foreign tourists to ecologically safe, accessible and active recreation in the Carpathian region during the non-winter season

BikeLand Project

http://bikeland.com.ua/page/en/project/


Is CBC run from Brussels?

Not at all, it is a shared management system, with neighbou-ring Partner Countries on an equal footing with Member States. They take joint decisions on how to spend the money within the identified priorities, and select the projects them-selves. The role of the European Commission is to monitor the implementation of the programmes. Each of our 13 pro-grammes has a Joint Managing Authority (often hosted by a local or regional administration), which is responsible for launching the calls for proposals, the selection of projects, signing the contracts and managing the projects. For the time being, all of them are based in EU- Member States, as you need the technical capacities and experience to run a programme. But in the next generation of CBC program-mes, we would like to see Joint Managing Authorities being based also in the neighbouring Partner Countries. Each of the programmes answers to a Joint Monitoring Committee, which includes all the participating countries. In fact, the CBC programmes are based on a fully balanced participa-tion between EU Member States and Partner Countries. It is this body that decides when calls for proposals should be held, how much money to allocate for different types of pro-jects and after the call, which projects should be funded.

What is the expected impact on the citizens of Partner Countries?

The main beneficiaries of the projects are local and regional administrations, but NGOs and civil society organizations – from women’s groups to chambers of commerce – benefit as well. It’s their initiatives that largely underlie the project proposals. Those organisations act on behalf of the local communities whose life eventually improves if a hospital is renovated or pollution is reduced due to CBC funding. And of course large-scale investment projects like road construc-tion have a very direct impact on the citizens. What are the challenges the CBC programmes face today? One challenge is the sheer magnitude of the programmes, with so many countries involved. Another is that regionalism and free-dom of initiative are instrumental for successful CBC under-takings. But that kind of culture is relatively new in neigh-bouring countries. Co-operation experience and capacities evolve over time. For example,when we started with Moldova in the late 90s, they came up with 3-4 project proposals under each call. Now lots of ideas are being generated and lots of proposals coming from Mol-dovan organisations. The same happens in other countries. People need time to build up experience.

“The idea is to help develop neighbouring regions by tackling common challenges in fields such as environment, education and health, secure borders and boost people-to-people exchanges”

“Large scale investment projects such as road construction have a very direct impact on the citizens”

CBC - Cross-border cooperationCBC, a key priority of the ENPI, seeks to reinforce cooperation between EU Member States and Partner Countries along the external EU borders.

http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/neighbourhood/ regional-cooperation/enpi-cross-border/index_en.htm

Q: What are the programmes trying to achieve?

Bodil Persson Cross-Border Cooperation under the ENP (called ENPI CBC) is a whole family of programmes, whose main objective should be seen in the context of the EU’s big enlargement in 2004 and2007. When the new Member States joined the EU, an ini-tiative was needed to prevent new dividing lines emerging in Europe. So ENPI CBC was launched, building on the Inter-reg model of cross-border cooperation within the EU itself. The underlying concept is cooperation among regions defi-ned around a border rather than divided by a border.

What is the focus of ENPI CBC?

We work with 13 main programmes along the EU’s external border; each programme will manage hundred of projects. The idea is to fund and help to develop border regions. In particular by: contributing to economic and social deve-lopment; assisting Partner Countries in tackling common challenges in fields such as the environment, education and health; helping to ensure efficient and secure borders while enhancing communication across those borders; and finally boosting people-to-people exchanges. Our aim is to help local administrations in the border regions to deve-lop the necessary skills and capacities. These programmes range from the North to the South and currently include 15 EU member states, 13 neighbouring Partner Countries and Norway and Turkey in three types of programmes: land border, sea crossing and sea basin programmes.

How are such complex programmes funded?

The total budget is €1 billion for the period 2007-2013 (10% of the ENP budget). Those funds come from the Eu-ropean Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) as well as from the EU’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). In fact, it is the first time that we are able to merge allocations coming from two different budget lines. There are also contributions from the participating coun-tries, which in some cases can be very substantial. Russia for example has decided to put €103 million into the CBC “pot”, almost 40% of the EU’s contribution for the programmes in which it participates. Russia differs from other neighbours, as it is not part of the ENP but wants to see its relations with the EU as a strategic partnership. Russia’s matching of CBC funding reflects these ambitions. The ENPI CBC programme budgets go to everything from smaller people to people networking projects to large-scale projects investing in technical equipment, improving border crossings, and road construction, etc. Projects are selected through calls being launched throughout 2010 to 2012 or awarded directly in the case of the large scale projects. However, the division of the budget and the types of projects vary from programme to programme.

Working across borders to bringpeople together

To prevent the EU’s new external borders from turning into dividing lines, the EU put in place the comprehensive European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) including an ambitious initiative focusing on cross-border cooperation (CBC) between outlying EU Member States and their neighbours. While the European Neighbourhood Policy targets external relations with the neighbouring countries as a whole, the CBC programmes put the focus on equal cooperation across borders at local and regional level, explains Head of CBC Sector at the European Commission Bodil Persson in an interview with the ENPI Info Centre: “It is a true partnership programme. Partners take joint decisions on how to spend the money within the identified priorities, and jointly select the projects themselves.”

“Cross-border co-operation is the only initiative with third countries embracing fully balanced participation between Member States and the Partner Countries”

ENPI Participating CountriesArmenia, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Moldova, Palestinian Authority, Russia, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine.

Timeframe2007-2013

Budget€1,1 billion

ObjectivesCBC aims to promote economic and social development in border areas. It strives to address common challenges, ensure efficient and secure borders and promote peopletopeople cooperation.

Find out moreENPI Info Centre CBC fiche >www.enpi-info.eu/mainmed.php?id=171&id_type=10&lang_id=450Regional Capacity Building Initiative >www.enpi-info.eu/mainmed.php?id=373&id_type=10INTERACT ENPI >www.enpi-info.eu/mainmed.php?id=374&id_type=10

Interview with Bodil Persson


Veneto Region (Italy), stressed that, “the European Union is actively expanding its dialogue with Russia in search of new fields for cooperation, where European experience could come in handy”. The meeting brought together experts, municipal staff, scholars and public of-ficials from six SPINE countries.

European know-how in a historical settingThe aim of integrating energy-efficient technologies is a pressing issue. Elvira Gasanova, project manager from the EU Delegation to Russia, pointed out that one of the discussion points at the recent EU-Russia summit in Rostov-on-Don concerned the Partnership for Modernization initiative, which also involves EU support in developing energy efficiency. “SPINE serves directly to apply ener-gy-efficient technologies in historical buildings,” she says. Most importantly, while being changed inside, they do not change on the outside. Gasanova is sure “this project will contribute to the preservation of cultural heritage in Vladimir oblast”. “Its success largely depends on effective interaction between all partners,” Gasano-va says. “We rely on active involvement of local administration and other stake-holders”. The total project cost is €752 581, to be distributed among the participating coun-tries. “This will cover the cost of proposal preparation, situation and strategy as-sessment, recommendations, as well as implementation of the necessary mea-sures and pilot initiatives,” said Lyudmila Sushkova, deputy head of the work team, Head of the Department of Bio-Medical Engineering, Vladimir State University. “In future we will have to find our own funding sources.” Russia’s case is peculiar in that architects of the past mainly focused on religious buildings. According to Sushkova, “with religious monuments it is easier – the Church now takes care of them”. But the situation for civil monuments is more dif-ficult. One of SPINE’s tasks is summarizing the experience of various countries – for instance, that of Italy, which has a vast heritage of civil architecture.

When reconstructing a historical building, experts are often faced with the challenge of finding the right balance between using energy-efficient technologies and preserving the building’s authenticity. This is precisely what the EU-funded Energy Efficiency and Urban Development Planning Programme (SPINE) is trying to achieve. It helps the EU’s neighbouring countries learn from European experience to breathe new life into old historical buildings using cutting-edge energy saving technologies. In Russia, Vladimir oblast has become the site of a pilot project.

Text by ITAR-TASS/ENPI Info Centre photos by ITAR-TASS

Vladimir – This magnificent town with its white-stone cathedrals and civil architec-ture is one of the most ancient urban settlements in Russia. It towers on the high Klyazma bank, 180km northeast of Moscow. The task today is to prevent Vladimir’s historic landscape from being submerged by modern construction. Vladimir State University and Vladimir Regional Administration have taken a lead, forming a partnership in the framework of the EU-funded Energy Efficiency and Ur-ban Development Planning Programme (SPINE), together with municipalities from Italy, Serbia, Croatia, Turkey and Ukraine. Together they will identify one building out of Vladimir’s numerous historical sites. The building will be restored using new solutions that will make it possible to pre-serve its authentic character and apply energy-saving technologies. The project is the expected to help fund restoration of historical buildings and objects of cultural heritage elsewhere in Russia, particularly in smaller towns.SPINE is part of the €14 million EU-funded CIUDAD programme, aimed at helping local authorities in the EU’s neighbourhood to address urban development problems in a sustainable manner. At a presentation of the project in Vladimir in early July, Andrea Baggioli, the representative of Union-camere del Veneto - the Association of the Cham-bers of Commerce, Industry, Crafts and Agriculture of

“This project will contribute to the preservation of cultural heritage in Vladimir oblast...Its success largely depends on effective interaction between all partners”

“The overall goal of the project is to establish an active partnership network which will continue work after the project cycle is over”

N The Vladimir puppet theatre - one of the candidates for the SPINE project.

Will Europe save that old house in Vladimir?

N The city of Vladimir, inside the puppet theatre.

RussiA


Q: What is the programme trying to achieve?

Frank Samol: The Cooperation in Urban Development and Dialogue (CIUDAD) programme’s primary objective is to promote cooperation and dialogue between local and re-gional authorities in the EU and ENPI partner countries. It aims to boost the exchange of experience and know-how, and strengthen the interaction between local authorities and civil society actors in the beneficiary countries. It acts at the local level (cities and municipalities), seeking thus to improve the level of involvement of local governments and the participation of civil society. On the ground, CIU-DAD aims to help local governments in the ENPI region enhance their capacity to plan for sustainable, integrated and long-term urban development using good governance principles. By creating new partnerships and strengthening existing ones among local and regional authorities in the ENPI region (South-South, East-East and South-East), it also hopes to achieve long-term benefits that would have an im-pact beyond the life of the programme.

What are the areas on which the programme focuses?

CIUDAD covers three main themes of urban development: Environmental sustainability and energy efficiency, Sustai-nable economic development and reduction of social dis-parities, and Good governance and sustainable urban deve-lopment planning. A total of 21 grant projects address these themes. Each project will be implemented by a Consortium of at least three partners including local authorities, thema-tic networks, academic and research institutions, and civil society organizations in a minimum of two ENPI countries. These work together on specific issues of relevance to all

communities involved. CIUDAD encompasses 10 projects in the South, 6 in the East and 5 interregional, i.e. involving partners both from the South and the East. It is one of the first programmes that encourage partnerships covering both ENPI regions.

What is the expected impact on the citizens of the partner countries?

Being implemented at local level, the ultimate beneficiaries of CIUDAD projects are citizens of urban communities in the partner countries. Most projects aim to improve the quality of basic urban services in an environmentally sustainable way, and thus benefit citizens of the city/municipality where they are implemented. A good example is a project being im-plemented in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, which promotes the establishment of efficient systems of Solid Waste Mana-gement using a participatory community-based approach. Some projects benefit a certain category of the population. One project, for example, promotes innovative and socially inclusive governance in sports and outdoor activities with a focus on women and youth as final beneficiaries.

What are the challenges you expect to encounter in the implementation of the programme?

Given CIUDAD’s broad scope and the many partners invol-ved, one of the biggest challenges will be to develop a com-mon understanding of all stakeholders in working jointly to-wards tangible achievements. Sustainability of the projects is another challenge, as one of the objectives of CIUDAD is to build lasting partnerships that would survive beyond the programme.

Local authorities a bridge acrossthe neighbourhoodThe Cooperation in Urban Development and Dialogue (CIUDAD) programme seeks primarily to promote cooperation and dialogue between local and regional authorities in the EU and ENPI partner countries. On the ground, CIUDAD aims to help local governments in the ENPI region enhance their capacity to plan for sustainable, integrated and long-term urban development using good governance principles. “Being implemented at local level, the ultimate beneficiaries of CIUDAD projects are citizens of urban communities in the partner countries,” explains Frank Samol, team leader of the CIUDAD Supporting Mechanism, in an interview with the ENPI Info Centre.

Interview with Frank SamolVera Shamota, leader of the project working group and head of external relations of the Vladimir oblast administration, gave the example of the former Muromtsevo estate. In order to restore this unique ensemble with the “Gothic” palace, a park and pond cascade next to the mansion, large investments are needed, as well as state-of-the-art technical solutions. All this may come true due to the European project. Similar solutions have already been tested in Serbia and Turkey. Among the 3,500 historical and cultural monuments on the territory of Vladimir oblast, there are many as important as Muromtsevo, including the Red Cross hos-pital building, the Nobility Assembly House, gymnasium for boys, the old Ampir cinema theatre and Imperial Stud Farm building in Alexandrov. Obviously, they all need help, but by 1 December only one out of 14 will be selected to take part in the European programme.

Partnership of expertsBaggioli believes that the project will attract the public sector – both at the federal and the local level, as well NGOs. “It is founded on the idea of expert partnership,” he stresses. It involves dialogue between the target groups. These include town councils, state officials, real estate owners, “green” technology developers, manu-

facturers of energy-efficient construction materials and build-ing companies. Experts from the Department of Architecture and Civil Engi-neering of Vladimir University are also ready to join the team. Their facilities make it possible to produce 3D laser images of the objects, which is necessary for further restoration work on historical buildings. The experience gained in the Vladimir Re-gion can be later disseminated across Russia.Nemanja Petrovic from the Serbian municipality of Savski Ve-nac says “the overall goal of the project is to establish an active partnership network which will continue work after the project cycle is over”. A website has been developed with information on the partners and links to relevant publications. Soon infor-mation will be available on funding opportunities for activities within the project. Andrea Baggioli is confident for the long-term: “the SPINE project will not end after its 30 months’ cycle. It is designed to move along.”

Participating countriesArmenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine (also Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Tunisia)

Timeframe2009-2013

ObjectivesIt aims to promote the concept of sustainable urban development Creates sustainable partnerships between local authorities in the EU and in the ENPI regions. It identifies and formulates sustainable urban development projects by local authorities in a suitable format to be presented to International Financial Institutions for investment.

The programme “Cooperation in Urban Development and Dialogue” (CIUDAD) helps local governments in the ENPI region address urban development problems in a sustainable manner, promoting cooperation between local actors and their EU counterparts.

CIUDAD – Sustainable urban development

www.ciudad-programme.eu/index.php

N The Vorontsov Mansion, Vladimir oblast.



Borders Divide Countries not Rivers

MOlDOVA

Common water related challenges Economic growth in the modern world comes at a price. Pollution from urban and industrial waste, overexploitation and unsustainable use of water in one country may affect water resources way beyond its borders. Water protection and effective management gains even more importance in the context of climate change. Keen to share its experience in water management with its neighbours, the European Union funds a project Water Governance in Western EECCA (Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia), which helps Partner Countries improve water legislation and contributes to their convergence with EU standards.

Text and photos by Irina Severin

Vanishing river Moldova is one of the most vulnerable countries in the region in terms of water resources, ranking among the last in Europe in water supply per capita. The sym-bol of the country’s water problems is the River Bic, which flows through its capital Chisinau and is now on the verge of disappearance. The older generation remembers that not long ago, the Bic was navigable. Younger people find it difficult to believe, with the river completely dry during the hottest summer months. Moldova shares two of its big rivers, the Dniester and the Prut, with neighbouring Ukraine and Romania. The country is land-locked, with no access to the Black Sea, but geographically it belongs to the Black Sea basin. Cooperation with other Black Sea countries could assist Moldova in tackling its own problems of water supply, but for that adequate legislation should be developed and mechanisms for the effective manage-ment of transboundary water resources be put in place. The EU Water Governance Project seeks to help the country and its neighbours advance towards these goals. In Moldova, it focuses on several key issues, including the development of norms and regulations, support to new wa-ter legislation and the overhaul of water qual-ity standards.

N Paul Buijs, Key Expert and Ludmila Gofman, Moldovan national coordinator of the water management project discuss the project’s implementation progress.

PeopleEnvironment EnergyTransport

Environment


New approaches need new institutions The Basin Water Management Agency, “Apele Moldovei”, is a new institution in Moldova. It ap-peared recently thanks to the new basin water management approach foreseen in the EU Wa-ter Framework Directive. Its head Victor Bujac summarized the new approach in cross-border cooperation: “Moldova and Ukraine share the same Dniester river basin, which means that the countries need to find a way to manage it jointly, and this approach creates a good platform for cooperation.” It is now accepted that the quality of surface wa-ter affects the entire ecosystem, which makes public cooperation and active involve-ment of environmental NGOs indispensable. Bujac believes the new legislation will improve the conditions for economic activities and will facilitate investments in the water management infrastructure. As for the River Bic, it has been subject to careful assessment from the project ex-perts. Deputy head of the State Environmental Inspection Valentina Tsapesh hopes that with the help of EU water management instruments, the river will one day spring back to life. “We are monitoring the situation now. The assessment mission is just the first step. What would a European capital be without a beautiful river? The next step must be to find practical ways to rehabilitate the river taking into account the EU’s best practices,” she said.

“For us, participation in this project and in the EU Water initiative is an opportunity to get access to valuable EU experience and best practices and to introduce them in Moldova“

N Victor Bujac Director of the Basin Water Management Agency, says that as Moldova and Ukraine share the same Dniester river basin, the countries need to find a way to manage it jointly, which creates a good platform for cooperation.

Participating countriesArmenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine

Timeframe2008-2010

Budget€ 2.2 million + € 0.8 million for equipment

ObjectiveThe project aims at helping to reduce pollution, foster fair sharing and effective use of scarce water resources and to improve the quality of shared water resources, such as trans-boundary rivers. The project seeks to improve, implement and enforce water legislation as well as contribute to convergence on EU standards. The Western Partner Countries, namely Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the South Caucasus share river basins and waters with the EU, which makes transboundary water management a crucial issue. Find out moreWater Governance in Western EECCA fiche www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=209&id_type=10ENPI Info Centre – Environment thematic portal http://www.enpi-info.eu/list_projects_east.php?subject=6

Assists Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) Countries in aligning with EU standards to ensure fair distribution of water, and supports the development of regulatory mechanisms and institutional procedures for River Basin Management Plans.

Water Governance in Western EECCA

http://wgw.org.ua/about.php

Step-by-step Convergence “For us, participation in this project and in the EU Water initiative is an opportunity to get access to valuable EU experience and best practices and to introduce them in Moldova,” says the Moldovan national coordinator of the water management project Ludmila Gofman. The common challenge for all partner countries was to leave behind the obsolete practices, inherited from the Soviet Union . Key expert of the project, Paul Buijs ex-plained: “For example the standards for fisheries in the old Soviet system included limits for 1349 substances. This may be fine from the environmental point of view, but but for many there is no analytical method that can measure at the low concen-trations of the standards and nobody knows if they are relevant for each country.” But, in his view, the EU Water Framework Directive is too complicated for Moldova and the other EECCA countries to adopt in its entirety, mainly because of the neces-sity of assessing water quality status using hydrobiological data. In the absence of extensive and reliable biological monitoring data they need a simpler way of setting objectives for water bodies that will provide a basis for water management until they can develop the necessary high level of biological monitoring.Under the WATGOV WEST project Moldova has identified the most important com-ponents of EU water legislation which can assist the country in addressing the en-vironmental concerns, and which are feasible from the economic, institutional and financial point of view. The system of water quality standards developed in Moldova was quickly accept-ed by the other countries because they had all reached the conclusion that they needed to replace or reform the old soviet system. Since they had agreed to align their water legislation and water management practice with the EU it offered them a way towards implementing the principles of the WFD without having first to set up extensive and expensive biological monitoring programmes. The physicochemical system could be implemented quickly.Another benefit of the project is its role in consolidating cooperation among stake-holders over measures to reduce water pollution and improve the treatment of waste-water, with clear benefits for the public in its impact on drinking and bathing water.

“We are monitoring the situation now. The assessment mission is just the first step”

N Valentina Tsapesh deputy head of the State Environmental Inspection hopes that with the help of EU water management instruments, the Bic River - that flows through the Capital Chisinau - will one day spring back to life.


“Of course there are problems, and improvements in water management are needed but waters are relatively clean since Armenia has not yet experienced as heavy industrial pressures on water resources as Europe has. The country can still boast ample water resources, but the human pressures on waters are growing”

N Seryan Minasyan deputy head of the Armenian Environmental Monitoring Centre.

but waters are relatively clean since Armenia has not yet experienced as heavy indus-trial pressures on its water resources as Europe has. The country can still boast ample water resources, but the human pressures on waters are growing”. ”Armenia should try to avoid the mistakes of the West in water management,” he says. The project, funded by the EU with a total of €5.2 million from 2008-2011, aims to en-hance the capacities of national environmental authorities engaged in water man-agement and help them understand that with the constantly increasing pressure on water resources, it is better to prevent pollution than fight its consequences. One of its key components is the application of the EU Water Framework Directive on the basis of five pilot river sub-basins of which three are within the countries national borders (Aragvi in Georgia, Aghstev in Armenia and Ganjachai in Azerbaijan) and two transboundary sub-basins (Debed/Khrami river basin shared by Armenia and Georgia and Alazani/Ganykh river basin shared by Georgia and Azerbaijan). Pichugin says the at the moment the most significant impacts on Armenian rivers are, untreated sewage disposal and waste that people dump in the rivers, though most rivers are still cleaner than many rivers in Europe.Volodya Narimanyan is deputy head of the Water Resources Management Agency of the Armenian Ministry for Nature Protection. He says the Armenian partners of the project have already completed the introduction of the legislative-institutional amendments.“We seek convergence with EU legislation by including the clauses of the EU Water Framework Directive into our national legislation and regulations,” says Narimanyan, adding that the water basin management projects in Armenia are being elaborated, with the Debed and Aghstev selected as pilot river basins.“In the framework of this project, draft management plans for the basins of Debed and Aghstev are being put together which will provide a methodological basis for the six other river basin management plans in Armenia,” says Narimanyan.

Monitoring the rivers togetherThe project in Armenia is due to receive technical support for its monitoring activities, and will develop a database platform to provide information on trans-boundary rivers. In the framework of the project, joint river monitoring is carried out by the Armenian Environmental Monitoring Centre together with its counterparts in Georgia and

The Kura River and its tributaries span a vast geographical area embracing, among others, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The EU-funded Kura River basin transboundary river management project aims to improve the quality of natural water resources and help the three South Caucasus countries preserve their common natural heritage. Armenia’s role in this task is to look after some of the Kura’s tributaries, the Debed River and the Aghstev River. Text and Photos by Aghavni Harutyunyan

Rivers to bridge the Caucasus divide

“We seek convergence with EU legislation by including the clauses of the EU Water Framework Directive into our national legislation and regulations”

N Volodya Narimanyan deputy head of the Water resources management agency.

The community angle Alaverdi, Armenia – At the bottom of the Debed River gorge, nestled in the folds of rugged mountains in the far north of Armenia near the Georgian border, lies the small town of Alaverdi. The river that runs through the town is the heart of the local community.“In summer, the river becomes a recreation area for the small nearby town of Ala-verdi,” says local resident Gayane Poghosyan, 48. “Local people descend on its banks to relax, as they can’t go elsewhere. We swim and catch fish here.” But since the 18th century, Alaverdi has also been home to copper mines, and the town today still hosts an important mining complex, often blamed by Armenia’s neighbours for polluting the waters of the river. Residents are unwilling to point fin-gers, but they too say the river is not as clean as it used to be. “The citizens of Alaverdi don’t want to speak about the river in public,” says one el-derly man, identified only as comrade Barseghyan. “There is still some fish here but frankly the number of species is down.” Others say the water is dirty because “people dump things into the river”. But they avoid blaming any particular industrial polluter located in the vicinity. “It’s none of my business,” one says.

Project leader:“To avoid the mistakes of the West”For the EU-funded Kura River regional project, however, such problems are at the core of its business. And for project team leader Anatoly Pichugin, things in Armenia look not as bad as they seem: “People tend to overdramatize, often exaggerating problems. Of course there are problems, and improvements in water management are needed

N Debed river in the city Alaverdi.

ARMEniA


Why does water stop running from the tap? Sometimes it is because it just stops flowing in the river. In order to prevent this from happening, the EU has developed its Water Framework Directive, which is aimed at restoring rivers in their original state. And because water does not have any boundaries and flows from the EU to its neighbouring countries and back, the EU has decided to share its advanced practices with six of its neighbours through a project called Water Governance in the Western Regions of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA).


Managing water resources

Kyiv - Bila Tserkva – Many years ago, the Ros’ River used to run clean and clear; then it became stagnant, like broth gone bad. Storage reservoirs had hampered the river flow, and the Ros’ had lost its natural ability for self-purification. It had fallen into the power of green algae, which were sucking oxygen from the water, turning the river into a dead pool and posing a threat to public health.The Ros’ is an average-sized river in Ukraine, starting in Vinnitskaya oblast, flowing through Kyiv oblast and into the Dnipro in Cherkasskaya oblast. In summer, when a significant volume of water evaporates from the vast reservoir surfaces, the river stops flowing. “We could still live through the hot period,” says Petro Babiy, Head of the Basin Administration, “if the towns and cities did not continue to take water from the river and pour back untreated wastewater.” According to Babiy, the water could not be post-treated, as the algae were blocking the filters, and the water quality was below any existing standards. When more chlorine was added, toxic com-pounds were formed similar to dioxin, which remained in people’s bodies for their whole life. The situation bor-dered on the emergency. And once the settlements downstream from the city of Belaya Tserkov’ remained with-out water for three weeks running, the regional administration got seriously alarmed.

ukRAinE

N People on the Dnipro River in Kyiv: Ukraine is following the advice and learning from the western experience through the Water Governance in the EECCA project.

Azerbaijan. Water samples jointly taken are analyzed by the national laboratories which are also involved in the inter-labora-tory testing carried out by an independent internationally certified laboratory in the EU “These tests show that the Khrami River in Georgia is often more polluted than the Debed River [in Armenia]. Now, the Geor-gian experts no longer insist that Arme-nia pollutes the Kura. Even Azerbaijan has toned down its accusations,” says Seyran Minasyan, deputy head of the Centre.

Vahagn Tonoyan, the Armenian national coordinator and expert in water resources management, agrees: “The South Caucasian countries frequently accuse each other of pollution. In reality, they haven’t carried out joint monitoring before to see the reason of the differences in the indices.” The national coordinator says the three countries should work towards common methodologies in taking and examining water samples as a way to stop making unsubstantiated accusations against each other, and hopes the progress made can outlive the project. We hope that some initiatives, for example, the joint monitoring project will be continued by the South Caucasian countries without foreign financial support,” says Tonoyan.”On the banks of the Debed in Aleverdi, however, residents remain convinced that their waters are polluted, highlighting the need for credible information, a gap the EU-funded river project aims to fill, keeping the public informed of any potential threat to the environment. Lusine Taslakyan, expert on public participation and capacity building, believes openness is crucial, and the first tangible result of efforts to increase public aware-ness will be a brochure about the River Aras. According to her, “It will help attract public interest to the history and culture of the Aras River. The purpose is not only to present the Aras basin but also to draw people closer to nature” – an essential first step to ensure public participation in saving a common heritage.

N The Debed river valley.

“We hope that some initiatives, for example, the joint monitoring project will be continued by the South Caucasian countries without foreign financial support”

Participating countriesArmenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia

Timeframe2008-2011

Budget€4.0 million + €1.2 million for equipment

ObjectiveIt aims to improve the water quality in the Kura River basin through trans-boundary cooperation and implementation of the integrated water resources management approach. The project supports the development of a common monitoring and information management system to improve transboundary cooperation and enhances the capacities of environmental authorities and monitoring establishments engaged in long-term integrated water resources management in the Kura River basin. Find out moreTransboundary river management for the Kura river - Phase II fiche www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=200&id_type=10ENPI Info Centre – Environment thematic portal www.enpi-info.eu/thememed.php?subject=6

Reinforces regional cooperation in monitoring and managing water resources in the Kura river basin, through training, capacity strengthening, streamlining data collection, information and know-how exchanges

Transboundary river management for the Kura river – Phase II

www.kuraarasbasin.net


Half way towards and integrated approachBasin Councils have already been set up for most rivers in Ukraine. Yet the implementa-tion of the integrated approach has only gone half way. Petro Babiy believes the basin coun-cils should be able to take decisions, while so far they only have advisory functions. He would also like the budgeting system to be changed: “Water users and polluters pay tax-es that go to the centre, and only a small part returns into the region afterwards,” he says. “In Europe the price of water is established locally, the funds remain at the disposal of the basin administration, and their use is decided by the basin boards. I hope we will do the same, but I am not sure how long it will take,” says Babiy, adding what Ukraine needs is a ‘polluter pays’ principle. The Water Governance in the EECCA project helps to make sense of this complex integrated approach. Ukraine is following the advice and learning from the western experience, although, according to Babiy, there are some who would not listen, and it is often very difficult to negotiate with them.There is a saying in Ukraine: water does not flow under a lying stone. Petro Babiy believes in action. He deems that sooner or later his country will join EU. Ukraine is already moving there, albeit slowly. As for the concrete results, the Head of the Basin Administration is happy that over the last three years there have been no emergen-cies on the Ros’. But he hopes that the river will not lose its ability for self-purification, because chlo-rine added to water makes it dead. Babiy himself drinks water from a spring, because even the most expensive filters cannot ensure the needed effect: water is a live or-ganism that requires common sense to manage.

N The Dnipro River in Zaporizhzhya and the largest hydro power-plant in Ukraine.

“The main thing here is integration between the people and finding consensus among the stakeholders”

Participating countriesArmenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine

Timeframe2008-2010

Budget€ 2.2 million + € 0.8 million for equipment

ObjectiveIt aims at helping to reduce pollution, foster fair sharing and effective use of scarce water resources and to improve the quality of shared water resources, such as trans-boundary rivers. The project seeks to improve, implement and enforce water legislation as well as contribute to convergence to EU standards. The Western Partner Countries, namely Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the South Caucasus share river basins and waters with the EU, which makes transboundary water management a crucial issue. Find out moreWater Governance in Western EECCA fiche www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=209&id_type=10ENPI Info Centre – Environment thematic portal http://www.enpi-info.eu/list_projects_east.php?subject=6

Assists Eastern Europe and southern Caucasus countries (Western EECCA) align with EU standards to ensure fair distribution of water, and supports the development of regulatory mechanisms and institutional procedures for River Basin Management Plans

Water Governance in Western EECCA

http://wgw.org.ua/about.php

Calling on European experienceIn order to solve the problem, one of the solutions was to call on European experi-ence. The Project Water Governance in the EECCA offered real support in implement-ing an integrated approach to the problem. This involves governing the Ros’ basin as a whole, rather than its parts divided between different regions. Now Babiy is work-ing in the Basin Administration specifically created for this purpose, monitoring from Belaya Tserkov’ the waters of the Ros’, from its source to the estuary. This approach is being extended to the other five project member-countries. Ac-cording to Steven Warren, Head of the European Expert Team, Ukraine, Belarus, Mol-dova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan have their Soviet past in common. However, during the 20 years of independence, these countries have developed varying leg-islation systems, “straggling” in diverging legal directions. Meanwhile, they continue to share the same waterways. For instance, Ukraine and Moldova share the Dniester River. And even if one country is engaged in purifying the river, the neighbouring country may go on using it to dump waste: on both sides of the border, people will suffer. This is why the Project suggests such countries should move forward together, with objectives in line with the tasks established by the EU Water Framework Directive. The point is not to chase brownie points, but to restore the natural state of the river. Yet another piece of European know-how is to involve the public in governing wa-ter resources. The Project helps set up Basin Councils, and as project expert Andriy

Demydenko explains, the new approach is fostering broader involvement. “In the basin council,” he says, “all stakeholders are represented: the administration, which governs the river, the businesses who are using the river water, as well as the environmental organiza-tions. The problems of the rivers should be solved by those who live in the area, not by sanitary and epidemi-ologic institutions, the Ministry of Environment or of-ficials from Brussels. The main thing here is integration between the people and finding consensus among the stakeholders.”

“We could still live through the hot period, if the towns and cities did not continue to take water from the river and pour back untreated wastewater”

“The problems of the rivers should be solved by those who live in the area, not by sanitary and epidemiologic institutions, the Ministry of Environment or officials from Brussels”

N Petro Babiy, Head of the Basin Administration with the Ros River, in Ukraine in the background. The water expert is happy that over the last three years there have been no emergencies on the Ros River.


Forest protection and cranberry pies

The Bezhanitski District in the Pskov Region offers a typical portrait of Russia’s Northwest – agricultural and economically weak. Its distinctiveness lies in its proximity to the external borders of the European Union (a mere 150km) and the fact that it is home to one of the largest wetlands and wildlife reserves in Europe – the Lovatsko-Polistovskaya Wetland System. This partly explains why the area has been designated as the pilot site for the FLEG Project (Forest Law Enforcement and Governance) financed by the EU. This is a regional initiative with the participation, alongside Russia, of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine. Text by ITAR-TASS/ENPI Info CentrePhotos by ITAR-TASS/FLEG

RussiA

Bezhanitsy – According to 2009 statistics, employment in the Bezhanitsy District in the Pskov Region is below the region’s average. The forest remains “underused” – “hence the unemployment,” says Anatoli Trofimov, Head of Bezhanitsy Municipal Government. Mr. Trofimov considers the EU FLEG Project as a timely initiative: “It’s good that peo-ple started to care and managed to obtain funding in order to raise public awareness about the issue.” Environmentalists, representatives of the District Government and local businessmen essentially share this opinion. Indeed, their round-table discussion held in snow-clad Bezhanitsy in February 2010 was centred on the subject. Together with the FLEG ex-perts, they discussed how the project could help local authorities, small businesses and residents efficiently and legitimately to use their forest resources, as well as ex-ploring potential new woodland management opportunities (including tourism). A key objective of the FLEG Project is to assist in countering illegal wood harvesting and other forest offences, by promoting lawful and sustain-able woodland management and the rule of law, as well as by developing local sources of income. It is also important to increase the sector infor-mation transparency and ensure the right of the local population and small businesses to legal use of forests, which cover almost half of the dis-trict area. Valentina Ivanova, First Deputy Head of the Dis-

Q: What is the project trying to achieve?

Steve Warren: The project aims at supporting the develop-ment of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) in the six project countries – Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Arme-nia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.The six countries currently manage water in ways derived from the former Soviet system in which planning is concer-ned mainly with ensuring the availability of sufficient water resources and not at all with water quality. It takes a rather narrow view of water and has no place for stakeholder parti-cipation. In contrast to this IWRM is a process of setting and achieving objectives for water bodies that:• Uses the entire river basin as the management unit;• Includes water in all its forms (surface and underground);• Takes account of all water uses, actual, prospective and potential;• Takes account of the effects of water (flooding, erosion, etc.); • Takes account of quantity & quality;• Considers water-related resources (wetlands, riparian habitats etc.);

• Takes account of the needs and views of stakeholders and of public opinion.

How does it achieve its objectives? What are the areas on which it focuses?

The implementation of IWRM requires changes in water law and in institutional structure and function, better technical data and new methodologies.IWRM is implemented in the EU through the Water Fra-mework Directive but this requires extensive and very high quality biological monitoring data that does not at present exist in the EECCA countries.The project therefore focussed on the acceptance by the partner countries of a 5-class system of physicochemical water quality standards based on different uses for the wa-ter. This starting point was a system developed for Moldova under an OECD project, which was adapted in each country to accommodate natural background concentrations and, in some cases, the inclusion of some additional parame-

ters. Each country now has available, and some have plans to adopt, a system of standards that is very similar for each country. This will facilitate agreement on the physicochemi-cal status of transboundary water bodies.This, however, is only a first step. The next will be the ac-ceptance that, for a water body that does not meet the standards for its uses, these standards will then become the water quality objective.This will require the imposition of reduced Emission Limit Values for discharges over a period of time until the stan-dards are met.

What is the impact on the citizens of partner countries?

Over a period of time (years rather than months) there should be a gradual improvement in surface water quality and the aquatic environment.

Is it expected to have a long term impact or a ripple effect?

If a country rolls out the adoption of IWRM river basin by river basin there will be a ripple effect but the real benefits will come when water and environmental quality improve over a period of years.

What do you consider as your most important achievements?

Five of the six countries have agreed a new system of water quality standards and a sixth, Belarus, is considering the ad-vantages of changing to the new system. We were able to help each of the partner countries with advice on different aspects of water legislation.

What is the biggest challenge you faced in its implementa-tion?

The biggest difficulty we encountered is common to nearly all the EECCA countries, which is the low priority afforded to the environment in the partner countries and in conse-quence the low level of resources available in the Ministries of Environment to agree and implement changes.

Water quality at stake

For two years an EU-funded project has been working to help develop Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) in Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.The €3 million two-year project, Water Governance in the Western EECCA countries has helped promote changes in water law, build institutional capacities, improve technical data exchange and introduce new methodologies.The project has been able to assist each of the partner countries with advice on different aspects of water legislation, Team Leader Steve Warren says in an interview with the ENPI Info Centre. “Five of the six countries have agreed a new system of water quality standards and a sixth, Belarus, is considering the advantages of changing to the new system.”

Interview with Steve Warren


lieves that “the FLEG Project will contribute to strategic devel-opment of the Bezhanitsy District as a whole and the natural reserve in particular.” Local businessmen support the initiatives. Yuri Novikov, repre-sentative of a wood-processing enterprise proposes to develop ecological trails, tourist campsites and, if necessary, build tour-ist wooden lodges. “This could translate into new job creation at our enterprise,” he says.

Cranberry Pies According to Mr. Yablokov, development of tourism in the region “requires compre-hensive efforts, good tourism publicity, quality catering based on natural products and traditional local cuisine, as well as wooden furniture and souvenir manufactur-ing.” There is an idea of compiling and publishing a book of traditional Bezhanitsy recipes. Another idea is to hold cranberry fairs. The area is famous for its delicious

cranberry infusions, and cranberry pies. Indeed, Bezhanitsy has a lot with which to welcome and surprise its visitors.

N Cranberry

“Man does not visit certain remote areas surrounded by windfall timber in years. Anthropological impact on the nature is minimal. Only scientific researchers and natural reserve rangers work in the forest”

“Tourism in the region requires quality catering based on natural products and traditional local cuisine”

Participating countriesArmenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine

Timeframe2008-2011

Budget€6 million

ObjectiveIt aims to tackle the growing problem of illegal forest activities in the Partner Countries by promoting legal and sustainable forest management and utilisation practices and seeks to strengthen the rule of law and to enhance local livelihoods. The European Commission grant has been provided to the World Bank through a multi-donor trust fund. The project’s implementing partners are the World Bank, the IUCN (World Conservation Union) and the WWF (World Wildlife Fund), ensuring that the public and private sectors as well as civil society are consistently included in the project’s activities. Find out moreFleg fiche - www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=205&id_type=10

Supports governments of participating countries, civil society and the private sector in the development of sound and sustainable forest management practices, including the prevention of illegal forestry activities.

Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG)

www.enpi-fleg.org

trict Government agrees: “Lack of regulation gives rise to numerous violations, in-cluding unauthorised logging, debris build-up, land and road defacement. Forests are not conserved and reproduced... Ripened trees are not felled – they ail, rot and clutter up the forest.” There is a clear need for change, and the Bezhanitsy gathering considered how to go about it. In particular, government authority should be extended to enable it to participate in approval of plans and forestry regulations. There was also a proposal to simplify procedures for renting smaller forest plots (up to 400 hectares) to local residents and small businesses. As for unrented plots, it was suggested to revive the system of auction-based timber sale to small businesses. The discussion revealed that the financial crisis, the forestry management reform and the adoption of the new Russian Forestry Code created a difficult situation for traditional forest users in the District. Even the best equipped enterprises face seri-ous challenges, while many smaller ones simply go out of business. The Pskov Region the project’s objective is to promote the use of non-wood forestry products (berries, mushrooms and medicinal herbs), as well as facilitate legal access to wood for the local population and small businesses. Promotion of forest ecotour-ism in the protected area of Polistovski Natural Reserve is expected to be one of the project focus areas.

On the Tourist Trail All Year Round Tourism and forest are directly related. The forest is not a mere agglomeration of trees. The forest is pure air, lakes, berries, and mushrooms. “The objective of our programme is to create jobs by spurring the segment through the support of local initiatives,” said Alexei Grigoriev, the FLEG Project adviser. “The forest should be an orderly place. And, of course, forest protection against fire is a top priority.” Grigoriev is convinced that “all good intentions in the area of tourism development may end up in one huge blaze in the absence of proper woodland management.” The Polistovo-Lovatskaya Wetland System is Europe’s largest natural filter. Accord-ing to experts, the upper swamp traps various pollutants, retaining them in the soil together with peat, while “at the outlet” the wetland produces pure water, which supplies Russia’s north-western water basins. “This is a specially protected area”, says Mikhail Yablokov, Director of the Polistovski Natural Reserve. “The law prohibits tree felling and forest use. There is no permanent population and no roads. Man does not visit certain remote areas surrounded by windfall timber in years. Anthropological impact on the nature is minimal. Only sci-entific researchers and natural reserve rangers work in the forest.” The area is ideal for ecotourism. The natural reserve director is convinced that the forestry programme combined with ecotourism will help create new jobs. He be-

“Lack of regulation gives rise to numerous violations, including unauthorised logging, debris build-up, land and road defacement”

“The area is ideal for ecotourism. the FLEG Project will contribute to strategic development of the Bezhanitsy District”

N FLEG project meeting.


Timber auctionsBy the end of February 2010, the first two open auctions were held to sell harvesting contracts for standing timber to private companies and state enterprises as part of the Moldovan Government reforms. The money collected, over 12 million Moldovan leus (approximately €750,000), will be spent on the development and protection of the country’s forest resources. The contribution by the FLEG project to these auc-tions is the tracking and analyzing of their effects. Aurel Lozan and his small team of five advisers are also supporting the study of the situation. Four working groups were created to cover various aspects of forest pro-tection and management, including the improvement of legislation, undertaking a study of the market of timber materials and the country’s needs for timber, an analy-sis of the current state of the forestry sector and raising awareness of the population with respect to forest-related problems.

Timber market problems“We have already prepared the first report on the timber market and the problems in this field based on the results of the first three months of this year,” says Andrei Cheresku, Chairman of the non-governmental organisation Silva Meleniu-III, with which the IUCN signed a contract for the implementation of surveys within the FLEG programme. “Many interesting facts, even at the initial stage, were revealed, illus-trating the depth of the problem,” he says, adding that, “during the exportation of timber, the customs declarations employ quite different systems of measurement: cubic metres, running metres, tons... Naturally, this does not ensure due accounting of the timber that is being commercialised, which creates a loophole to manipulate the volumes of logging.” In his words, the local authorities do not maintain the regis-ters of households with gas supply, so it is difficult to define the actual need for fuel timber. “We have already requested all village and district authorities to provide us with the information about the total number of houses and farmsteads having gas supply,” says Cheresku. The problems of refining the legislation and the efficient management of forest re-sources were discussed at the initiative of FLEG Moldova, which brought together the representatives of various interested agencies, including the government agen-cy Moldsilva, academia, NGOs and private companies. “The economic activities of timber processing enterprises and the population’s need for timber make the problem of conservation and regular reproduction of forests ever more critical,” said Dmitri Galupa, Director of the Forestry Research and Man-agement Institute. “Insufficient state funding of scientific research and the imple-mentation of modern mechanisms of forestry management costs money already

“Moldova recently held the first two open auctions to sell a number of harvesting contracts for standing timber to private companies and state enterprises”

“The problem of protecting the forests against illegal logging is quite pressing for many countries and for our region in particular”

“Human action, but also inaction, may cause irreparable damage to Moldovan forests”

Moldovan Forest under EU ProtectionThe Codru forestland in Moldova, which covers the entire central part of the country, is celebrated in songs and folklore. But specialists are sounding the alarm: the forests are in poor health and are degrading; they suffer from lack of attention and funding, illegal logging and crude exploitation. To help resolve at least one of the problems, that of unauthorised activities in the forests, the EU has launched a programme called Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG), which is collaborating not only in Moldova, but also in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine.

Text and photos by Dmitri KALAK

Chisinau – Moldova’s forests are in trouble. Once the stuff of folklore, the area they cover is being whittled down by human action – and inaction – causing irreparable damage. The statistics speak for themselves. According to official registers, the net for-est area of the Republic totals 362,700 hectares, or 10.7% of the territory, considerably less than the 15-20% average in most other European countries. And even these scarce resources are under threat. According to official data, from 2000 to 2007 approximate-ly 35,000 cubic meters of timber were logged illegally – a figure experts fear may be just the tip of the iceberg. “The problem of protecting the forests against illegal logging is quite pressing for many countries and for our region in particular,” says Aurel Lozan, of the International

Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He is national co-ordinator of the EU-funded Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) pro-gramme in Moldova, a €6 million regional programme aiming to promote legal and sustainable methods of management in forestry and forest utili-sation, including the of illegal activities in the forests. The FLEG project is being implemented by the World Bank in close co-operation with the IUCN and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Lozan recalls that in 2005 an international conference was held in St. Peters-burg where 44 participant countries from Europe and North Asia signed the Declaration on Forest Law Enforcement and Governance. Each of the signatories committed to the development of an indicative National Action Plan for combating violations of the law and illegal wood-cutting. Moldova approved such an indicative plan in 2009, covering the period until the end of 2011. “Our project, whose timeline coincides with that of the national Action Plan, also supports its implementation,” says Lozan.

N Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) project.

MOlDOVA


Q: Why have Russia and the European Union decided to co-operate in this field?

Alexei Grigoriev: The European Union, which is a very large importer of wood products, is illustrating the ever-growing public interest in the ecological and social consequences of timber-felling in those countries from which it imports these items. Russia is one of the EU’s largest partners in the timber industry. We must admit, however, that there are cases of illegal cutting in our country. It is also apparent that there are serious problems in the context of forest management, including corruption. Both Russia and the EU are interested in the settling of these problems.

Unlawful cuttings – is this the main problem your project will be concerned with?

No. Although it will be an important one within our activi-ties. It is necessary to find the reasons in order to minimise the violations of forestry law which are the result of not only a deficient legal framework but also of the arrangement of the state system of forestry management. This field has wi-tnessed major changes in the past years. The old system of forest utilisation which was oriented, first of all, upon tree cutting, has virtually collapsed. As compa-red with the Soviet period, the volume of wood-cutting has decreased by several times. A great number of settlements of wood-cutters, as a result, have nothing to do. Currently, hundreds of kilometres of forests have no permanent population – they have just turned into wildlife areas. It will be very important to ensure the openness of the information in the field of forest manage-ment. We were surprised when we discovered

that in most cases it is impossible to find any information on the internet about the activities of state authorities in the field of forest management in the regions of Russia. We will rely upon the Law of Russia of 19 February 2009 on Ensuring Access to Data Concerning the Performance of State Autho-rities and Local Self-Governance Bodies. We will be monito-ring and promoting the observance of this Law.

Do you have to get over the resistance of functionaries as well?

There are such functionaries, too. But there are also a great number of splendid managers and specialists, especially in regions, with whom we have already worked and will work in the future as well. We need openness and publicity in the forestry field, the rights of the local population should be regulated normally and we must help the population and small business in the development of traditional (wood har-vesting) and alternative modules of forest management. The forest is not only the trees which are cut. Is also implies wildlife, natural foodstuffs such as mushrooms and berries, recreation, hunting, fishing and many other things. We will also rely upon the already existing and currently growing experience of our neighbours: Belarus, Latvia and Estonia.My personal goal within the framework of this project is to promote the improvement of the life of the inhabitants of

forest settlements; to minimise the difference between the Russian ter-ritory and that of the neighbouring EU states. A border should only be a line on a map and not another “iron curtain,” be it economic, legal or cultural.

No political boundaries for forests

Only 100-200 kilometres away from the boundaries of the European Union, there is a prima facie plain Russian remote forest area which has been endowed by nature with high quality woods although its population remains rather poor, at least if compared with neighbouring EU Member States. It is important for this difference not to be so drastic, says Alexei Grigoriev, an expert from the Europe and North Asia Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (ENA–FLEG) project which is funded by the European Union.

“It is also apparent that there are serious problems in the context of forest management, including corruption. Both Russia and the EU are interested in the settling of these problems”

Interview with Alexei Grigorievtoday, but may lead to even graver consequences in the future. For the EU Member States the conservation of forests is part of state policy. We hope that the ENPI-FLEG programme will become the first step for Moldova in this direction.”

Forestry Code “We need a new Forestry Code, which will be harmonised with EU law and provide for efficient mechanisms of management of forest resources and their protection

against illegal logging,” said Petru Rotaru, Moldsilva’s Head of Forest Fund Division. The concept of the new edition of the Forest Code substantiating the need for major amendments has already been drafted under the participation of the FLEG Moldova experts. Alexei Palanchan from the Botanics Institute is certain that the forestry law needs a profound over-haul, although this should not be the starting point. “Let us admit that we cur-rently have sufficient levers for ensuring a more cautious utilisation and protec-tion of forests,” he said. He proposes “the EU develops a new programme to make us look at the status of Moldovan forests from a new angle and to get involved in the solution of the accumulated prob-lems. In my opinion, this is the main merit of this project.”

N Moldovan landscapes.

Participating countriesArmenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine

Timeframe2008-2011

Budget€ 6 million

ObjectiveIt aims to tackle the growing problem of illegal forest activities in the Partner Countries by promoting legal and sustainable forest management and utilisation practices and seeks to strengthen the rule of law and to enhance local livelihoods. The European Commission grant has been provided to the World Bank through a multi-donor trust fund. The project’s implementing partners are the World Bank, the IUCN (World Conservation Union) and the WWF (World Wildlife Fund), ensuring that the public and private sectors as well as civil society are consistently included in the project’s activities. Find out moreFLEG website www.enpi-fleg.org/home.htmlFleg fiche www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=205&id_type=10

Supports governments of participating countries, civil society and the private sector in the development of sound and sustainable forest management practices, including the prevention of illegal forestry activities.

Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG)

www.enpi-fleg.org


“The dotted pattern on the seabed is not just pretty to look at. It also provides scientific evidence that flat-browed mud shrimps are capable of living in such big colonies here”

“Environment matters to us, and this is one of the reasons we are supporting this project…”

N A press-conference.

Hans Rhein Head of the Operation Unit: Energy, Transport, Environment, EU Delegation to Ukraine

Stepan Lyzun First Deputy Minister for Environmental Protection in Ukraine

Yelena Panina National Team Leader in Ukraine

Richard Lisovsky Local Expert, Ukraine Scientific Centre for Ecology of Sea (UkrSCES)

Victor Karamushka National Expert on Sustainable Development and Institutional Policy

Boris Aleksandrov Local Expert, Institute of Biology of Southern Seas, Odessa branch

Environment Collaboration project for the Black Sea in three countries of the region, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. “Environment matters to us, and this is one of the reasons we are supporting this project… The protection of the ecosystem of the Black Sea is important”, says Hans Rhein, Head of Operation at the EC Delegation in Ukraine.The project aims to assist in the preservation of the Black Sea and its coast through the development and improvement of the legislative base. It also helps save the natural resources and biodiversity of the Black Sea through support to the Partner Countries in resolving common issues. The overall goal is to make the Black Sea healthy and clean.Among the project’s major achievements at the regional level is the development of the amendments to the Convention on the protection of the Black Sea against pollution (Bucharest Convention). The Bucharest Convention is the most important legal instrument that facilitates decision making on issues related to the Black Sea environment.

The Ukrainian angle One of the key components of the work to improve the marine environment is the development of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Black Sea. MPAs help preserve the ecosystem and the resources that are vital for healthy environment, fisheries and tourism.The Ukrainian experts and scientists have put together comprehensive guidelines for the management of the MPAs in the Black Sea. These guidelines take into ac-count all specific parameters of the Black Sea, crucial for developing new MAPs that can also be used by other countries of the region. Under the Environmental Collaboration for the Black Sea project, experts prepared background information for the establishment of a marine protected area in the Kar-kinitsky Bay, between the Crimean peninsula and Kherson oblast, called the Small Phyllophora Field. This area is a popular site for fishing, hunting, recreation and mari-

Saving the Black Sea

The Black Sea countries have long exploited ample resources of the sea they share, largely oblivious to the harm being inflicted upon nature. Over time, pollution, coastal development and overfishing undermined the unique ecosystem. It became clear that a wide international effort was needed to reverse the downward trend. That is why the EU took a leading role and funded the Environmental Collaboration for the Black Sea project that sought to support the effort to save Pontus Euxinus or the ‘hospitable sea’ as the ancient Greeks and Romans used to call it.

Text by Ilona IarmoliukPhotos by ECBSea

N Underwater studies in Karkintsky Bay.

KIEV – Underwater studies in the Karkinitsky Bay, north-west of the Crimean penin-sula, provided scientists with interesting observations, according to Boris Aleksan-drov, an expert at the Odessa branch of the Institute of Biology of Southern Seas. While diving in this area they came across sites with big numbers of holes made by flat-browed mud shrimps. These shrimps dig holes in the seabed, and the number of holes equals the number of shrimps – one hole, one shrimp in it. When the tiny creature leaves its home, the hole is rapidly filled up with sand or silt, and eventually vanishes from the surface. “Can you imagine, we found vast settlements of flat-browed mud shrimps with up to 100 holes per square meter”, says Boris Aleksandrov. “The dotted pattern on the sea-bed is not just pretty to look at. It also provides scientific evidence that flat-browed mud shrimps are capable of living in such big colonies here”.Also thanks to the underwater studies the Ukrainian scientists were able to observe and describe another phenomenon which is unusual for the Black Sea, the sea reefs.“As a matter of fact, we do have coral reefs in the Black Sea, but here we are talk-ing about oyster reefs. Some of them are about 1,5 meters high”, adds Aleksandrov. A great number of mussels, crayfishes and colourful sea sponges have found their homes in the oyster reefs, he says.

EU: “Environment matters to us”The crayfish and the oyster reefs are not the only victims of human activity in the Black Sea region. There is ever grow-ing recognition in the Black Sea littoral states that human habitat is also in peril. The question is how to address the problem in the most effective way. The EU has taken the leading role in fighting the environment challenges by en-gaging its financial resources and institutional capacity.In practical terms, the European Commission launched the

ukRAinE


AzERbAijAn

Participating countriesGeorgia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine

Timeframe2007–2009

Budget€ 2.2 million

ObjectiveThe project contributes to the sustainable development of the Black Sea Basin by preventing and reducing the input of pollutants through river or direct discharges into the sea, as well as through sustainable management and protection of natural resources, including water resources and biodiversity. It aims to help control land-based sources of pollution and prevent the dumping of waste and supports joint action in the case of accidents. Find out moreEnvironmental collaboration for the Black Sea fiche > www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=203&id_type=10ENPI Info Centre – Environment thematic portal > www.enpi-info.eu/thememed.php?subject=6

Improves regional cooperation and the national capacity of participating countries to protect the Black Sea Basin, and implements activities decided by the Black Sea Commission

www.ECBSea.org

Environmental collaboration for the Black Sea

The EU has helped the countries in the region to improve their legislation in order to protect the Black Sea. Now Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova have to engage actively in monitoring the sea and keeping the situation under control.

N Research in the Black Sea.

time transport. Today this part of the sea is endangered by pollution from agriculture and industry, as well as uncontrolled hunt-ing and overfishing.The experts chose this bay ecause it contains vast resources of Phyllophora - the red algae. Phyllophora is not just a unique biological object. One hundred and eighteen species of zoophytes depend on this algae. “Ten out of them are already in the endan-

gered-species list”, explains Boris Aleksandrov. Also, about 48 species of fish depend on the red algae for their livelihood.The project has also developed the Draft Law on the Coastal Zone and submitted it to the Ukraine Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Good results are the best reward As a result of the two and a half years’ work by international and national project experts in cooperation with the Environmental Ministries of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, the project has prepared draft legislation documents, guidelines, reports and surveys, which were handed over to the relevant government bodies in the Part-ner Countries. In this way the EU has helped the countries improve their legislation in order to pro-tect the Black Sea. Now, as Hans Rhein points out, Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova have to engage actively in monitoring the sea and keeping the situation under con-trol. But of utmost importance is that all recommendations developed by the project team should be put into practice by the governments. “Soon we hope to see the results of this work”, he adds. In Ukraine this project is considered one of the most successful of those funded by the EU, and the representatives of the Ministry of Environmental Protection promise to do their best towards implementing its aims. But to be honest, only time will show whether we fulfill our commitment to care for the ‘clean’ future of the Black Sea.

In the 1990s the ecosystem of the Caspian Sea, a habitat for sturgeon, seals and other species, was endangered by pollution, oil spills, coastal discharges etc. and the littoral states could not undertake regular water quality monitoring to understand the status of its environment and ecosystems. The problematic situation aggravated after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The littoral states in collaboration with the international community have, in the late 1990ies initiated the protection of the unique Caspian Sea, by establishing the Caspian Environment Programme (CEP) and by signing the Tehran Convention. The Caspian states have all ratified the Convention and committed themselves to the Strategic Action Plan. In order to support two of the targets of the CEP’s Strategic Action Plan, the EU has financed the CaspianMAP project (Caspian Water Quality Monitoring and Action Plan for Areas of Pollution Concern).


Purer water for the Caspian Sea

Baku – “The monitoring of water quality in the region plays a very important role to under-standing the Caspian Sea’s environment and major trends,” said Mirsalam Ganbarov, head of the Caspian Complex Environmental Monitor-ing Administration of the Azerbaijan Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources. “It allows us to determine the impact of new industries and the exploitation of natural resources, and helps evaluate the efficiency of measures ap-plied to protect its environment.” To upgrade laboratory capacity, the EU supplied sophis-ticated sampling and analyzing equipment and supported its installation, the Azeri official said;monitoring was now conducted regularly, with samples taken from the surface, the water column and the sea bottom. The EU-supplied

N The most polluted areas of the Caspian are now constantly monitored.


Government effortsThe Azeri state appears determined to undertake measures for the Baku bay water purification. President Ilham Aliyev has said new environmental ships with special equipment on water purification will be delivered in 2010. The government is taking steps to clean the Caspian from metal wastes resulting from oil industry activity. Rovnag Abdullayev, president of the State Oil Company (SOCAR), said there are more than 500,000 tons of metal wastes only in the Azerbaijani sector of the Sea – old pipelines, sunken ships, etc. “However, during the last three years 32,000 tons of metal waste was taken out from the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian. Work will increase in 2010 and we are planning to clean 82,000 tons of metal from the sea.”Ganbarov believes all these measures will significantly improve the situation. “It will increase the sea’s self-recovery potential and will serve to preserving of biodi-versity of the Caspian.”

multi-functional equipment allows high accuracy of registrations and high-speed proceeding of data on the pres-ence in the water of hard metals, pesti-cides and oil products. Project Manager at DG EuropeAid in Brussels, Lena Niels-en, said the project, which ended in September 2009, made “in-depth as-sessments of the monitoring practices and capabilities of water laboratories in the region, on the basis of which an inter-calibration exercise was designed.”

The results of the exercise, which implies harmonizing the monitoring methodology and standards, allowed the laboratories to develop their capacities to work with the samples they received from sea expeditions organized by the project.

Cruises to draw a CaspianMAPFour sea expeditions were carried out in ‘hot-spot’ areas of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan known for having high pollution. The goal was to deter-mine the main characteristics of the water and the sediments on the seabed. In Azer-baijan, the cruise was organised by the Caspian Complex Environmental Monitor-ing Administration. Samples were taken from the territorial waters near Baku bay and in the deep-water side of South Caspian, said Ganbarov. Based on the outcome of these expeditions, the Regional Plan for Water Quality Monitoring was developed. It included recommendations to Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan on defining places of heavy pollution as well as regular sample taking, and set criteria for new standards of water quality that create good conditions for marine life. A plan for proposed priority investments, for example the construction of purification plants and measures to avoid pollution, was developed by the project. Azerbaijan was excluded from this recommendation as it had already invested in purification plants.

Improving water quality and purity Water-borne and industrial waste of Baku, Absheron and Sumgayit city as well as the Kura River are considered ‘hot-spots’ of pollution in Azerbaijan. However, with the EU’s technical support and within the country’s plans to improve its environmental situation, the water purification infrastructure in Baku and the Absheron peninsula was modernised and new facilities established. Every year, more than 600 million cubic meters of waste water goes into the sea of Baku and the Absheron peninsula, the most serious sources of Caspian pollution in Azerbaijan. “In the mid-2000s, only 30-35% of these volumes were purified whereas now thanks to all these measures purification has reached up to 70%,” said Ganbarov. And the work on the establish-ment of new purification facilities continues in Azerbaijan. Ziyaddin Kazimov, head of division at the Republican Centre for Hygiene and Epidemiology, says the quality of beach water has significantly improved as a result of the new purification plants. “A few years ago, there were places where the level of colon bacillus substance in water was several times higher allowed norms. Now the situation has changed com-pletely.” But the Azerbaijan Green Movement chairwoman, Farida Huseynova, be-lieves the measures are insufficient. “For example the capacity of the Hovsani water purification station was increased, but it was not modernised.” Even so, ordinary Azerbaijanis appear to see positive changes. “The water in the Cas-pian, at least at Absheron beaches, is definitely purer now. A few years ago it was really dangerous to swim there because of high level of microbe concentration and household rubbish pollution. Since last summer the water is obviously purer,” said Ogtay Mammadov, 42, an IT-specialist.

“The monitoring of water quality in the region plays a very important role to understanding the Sea’s environment and major trends… To upgrade the capacity of regional labs on water quality research, the EU supplied and installed sampling and analyzing equipment”

N Water at Caspian beaches in Azerbaijan is now much purer than even few years ago.

“Only a few years ago there were some places on the Caspian coast where the level of colon bacillus substance in water was several times higher allowed norms. Now the situation has changed completely”

Participating countriesAzerbaijan,Russia and Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan

Timeframe2006 –2009

Budget€1.5 million

ObjectiveThe project, with a regional office in Turkmenistan, sought to contribute to an improved quality of the marine and coastal environment of the Caspian littoral states. The CaspianMAP was financed under the TACIS programme to support the Caspian Environment Programme (CEP), whose mission is to help Caspian littoral states achieve the sustainable development and management of the Caspian environment in the long term. Its implementation began in 1998 with EU support and the participation of all five littoral states – Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan. The TACIS programme (Technical Assistance to Commonwealth of Independent States) has been replaced by the European Neighbouhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI). Find out moreCaspian Environment Programme www.caspianenvironment.org/newsite/index.htmENPI Info Centre – Environment thematic portal http://www.enpi-info.eu/list_projects_east.php?subject=6

Supports the objectives of the Caspian Environment Programme (CEP) by helping to develop a common Regional Water Quality Monitoring Programme and a Regional Pollution Action Plan.

Caspian Water Quality Monitoring and Action Plan for Areas of Pollution Concern (CaspianMAP)

www.caspianmap.org


Everyone seems to agree that coordinated international efforts are needed to tackle climate change. The task now is to translate this conviction into real actions. Countries have to develop climate change strategies, get their citizens and industries interested in energy saving clean technologies, find the necessary investments and build adequate institutional capacities. To help neighbours advance towards these goals, the EU has funded a project Support to Kyoto Protocol Implementation (SKPI).


Carbon footprints leading into the future

Kyiv – “You live as if you have the resources of not just one but two planets. Your carbon footprint is 2.33 planets and 9.58 tonnes per annum” – reads Nastia Zaretska, a ninth-grade student of a Kyiv school, on the internet after completing her first cli-mate quiz. The website offering the quiz claims it will take five minutes to complete but it takes Nastia over half an hour to fill out the questionnaire. Why so long? Be-cause she is using an electronic translator. “It would have been better if the quiz was in my native Ukrainian. Few people I know would be motivated enough to spend several hours with a dictionary even if they knew it would help the climate cause,” says Nastia. The official title of this quiz is How Big Is Your Ecological Footprint? Plans exist to trans-late and adapt it for the twelve countries involved in the SKPI project. Alexei Sank-ovski, the project’s manager, says that such internet quizzes have become popular. You can visit the website free of charge and answer questions such as: Do you have a car? How often do you eat meat? How much do you spend on jewellery? What energy sources do you use to heat your home?

“We just lack awareness. The internet quiz How Big Is Your Ecological Footprint gives us a good reason to think”

PeopleEnergyEnvironment Transport

Energy

ukRAinE


N Ecological footprint quiz.

The climate is changing, and so should our habits For the past 15 years, the average temperature on the planet has gone up from 13.5° to 14.2°-14.3° Celsius. Scientists agree that this rise in temperature is our own doing. Through consultancy and support, the EU wants to attain the global purpose of not allowing the average temperature of the planet to increase by more than 2° Celsius. For this reason, the EU’s SKPI project plays the role of a technical and legal adviser for the twelve participating countries. The problem is indeed very serious: real disasters await small island states as they may find themselves under water, even though some climate change impact might be positive, although temporary, for oth-ers. There is no doubt that global emissions should be reduced. The Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, should be replaced by a new treaty. ”The problem is neither the global nor lo-cal rise of temperature but, rather, the up-setting of the climatic balance,” says Alexey Kokorin, one of the project’s main experts. The SKPI project seeks to assist the twelve participating countries in negotiating an international treaty that will take over from Kyoto. “If they adhere to a new treaty, this will partially be the accomplishment of our project,” believes Sankovski.

Within the framework of the project, Sankovski and his team analysed existing calcu-lators and committed to adapt them to the needs of each partner country. “The carbon intensity of the power grid in Ukraine differs from that of Georgia, Ta-jikistan or Russia,” he says. “For example, the exploitation of the same equipment in Tajikistan is associated with less carbon emissions than in Ukraine or Russia, because in Tajikistan hydroelectric power is a key source of energy, and it is less polluting.”

Double rewardThe calculator is not the only task of the project. It also helps attract investments and find partners in the field of energy conservation. There are plans to substitute conventional filament light bulbs with energy-saving ones in the schools of Krama-torsk, Horlivka and Sloviansk in the Donetsk region by this summer, the energy-sav-ing bulbs consuming five times less power.Why does the European Union find it profitable to support the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol in Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia? “The EU is interested in the fulfilment of the Protocol and all of the subsequent arrangements which will come after to replace it,” answers Sankovski, “The more countries participate in this process, the higher the likelihood is that the arrangements will be implemented.”The twelve project member-countries are former Soviet republics. For this reason, they still maintain common infrastructure, engineering solutions and legal frame-work, even though each of them has their own particular political, economic and local nuances. The countries with major industrial potential, like Ukraine, Russia and Georgia, are more successful, while certain Asian countries, such as Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, have less human and economic resources for the fulfilment of the provisions of international agreements like the Kyoto Protocol,” says Sankovski. All the member-countries have a legal framework, but abidance by the law is weak, especially the level of observance of laws on energy conservation and renewable en-ergy. Sankovski believes that in an ideal world, the laws should be directly enforce-able and should include the economic constituent, i.e. business incentives, supple-menting the stick policy with a carrot.

“The more countries participate in this process, the higher the likelihood is that the arrangements will be implemented”

”The problem is neither the global nor local rise of temperature but, rather, the upsetting of the climatic balance.”

N Odessa port, Ukraine.

N Alexei Sankovski.


With more than 26,000 rivers, Georgia is rich in hydropower potential. However, the limited capacity of the country’s electricity transmission grid prevent this natural advantage from translating into major economic benefit. The Black Sea Energy Transmission System, a project supported by the EU-funded Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF), is set to bring change. The €300 million project will help connect the power grids of the Southern Caucasus countries and increase electricity exports to Turkey and Europe, while bolstering energy security in the region.

Text and photos by Maia Edilashvili

South Caucasus united by common electricity grid

Tbilisi – In the 1990s, work on Georgia’s high voltage electricity grid was abandoned in the midst of the post-independence turmoil. Now, it will soon be in full swing again, the key to a significant new role for Georgia. While the previous projects focused on strengthening the domestic power system, the new one envisions the rehabilitation and construction of a 315 km high voltage grid connecting the Georgian and Turkish power networks. This opens the door to new investment in electricity generation and makes Georgia a regional hub for en-ergy trade, according to Deputy Energy Minister of Georgia Mariam Valishvili.The 500/400 kV line will link Zestaponi in western Georgia with Gardabani near the Azerbaijani border via Akhaltsihke, close to Turkey. The project also includes con-struction of a back-to-back converter station in Akhaltsikhe which is necessary to establish a synchronous link with the Turkish grid at Borcka. “Turkey is facing a demand-supply mismatch and everybody expects this gap to grow,” says Michael Andres, Director of Sector Coordination for the South Caucasus, Energy/Transport of KfW, the German Development Bank, one of the major donors for the project.

Georgi Veremeichuk, from the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Ukraine, is of the opinion that the European Union is fully aware of the problem of global climatic change. “Not more than 2° C – this is a good policy. We are very grateful to the EU. This project aims at raising public awareness on climate problems, on the develop-ment of national approaches and supporting institutional capacity building of the member-states.” “We just lack awareness,” says Nastia Zaretska. “The internet quiz gives us a good reason to think.” For quite some time, Nastia has been rethinking her own habits. For example, she believes it is far better to ride a bicycle than to take an over-packed bus, but for this a shift in the culture of motorists is needed that would make it safe to ride a bicycle in the streets of a big city.

Participating countriesArmenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

Timeframe2008-2011

Budget€ 5 million

ObjectiveAssists participating countries in combating climate change both by extending the use of mechanisms, such as the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation that are attached to the Kyoto Protocol, and by supporting the formulation of appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies at each country level. Find out moreSupport to Kyoto Protocol Implementation, SKPI website www.inogate.org/inogate_programme/inogate_projects/ongoing-inogate-projects/inogate_programme/inogate_projects/ongoing-inogate-projects/support-kyoto-protocol-implementation-skpi

SKPI fiche www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=212&id_type=10

Supports the fight against climate change through the extension of the flexible mechanisms of the UNFCCC/Kyoto Protocol as well as the development of appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Support to Kyoto Protocol Implementation, SKPI

N Carpathian Mountains, Ukraine.

www.inogate.org

“Not more than 2° C – this is a good policy. We are very grateful to the EU”

GEORGiA


kW/h annual capacity (Turkish-Korean investment). These plants, the government hopes, will allow to export up to 4 billion kW/h electricity, compared to 1.2 billion kW/h planned for 2010. This will be around 15% of total generation, making elec-tricity the top export commodity. “If you look at this line you will see the potential to make this Black Sea Energy Transmission System a regional network embracing also Azerbaijan and Armenia,” Andres explained. Connecting the network to the Turkish grid, he added, will offer a unique export opportunity. “If all the connections become operational the three [South Caucasus] countries together might be able to export to the EU or Iran and can also exchange energy [among themselves],” he said. The project will also hugely benefit domestic consumers in terms of urgently needed grid stabilization. Most of Georgia’s hydro resources are concentrated in western Georgia, while the east hosts the majority of large industrial enterprises, making an efficient transmission system critical for the stability of supply. Thus far, transportation of electric power relies on one single 500 kV line; in case anything happens to this line large parts of Georgia will be blacked out. The addition of a

second line under the Project will prevent this. Zumburidze is optimistic: “Sudden disrup-tions of electricity supply to the capital, Tbilisi, and other eastern Georgian regions will be ruled out.”

Participating countriesAlgeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Tunisia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine

Timeframe2007-2013


ObjectiveIt aims to mobilise additional funding for infrastructure projects in the Neighbourhood area. The NIF focuses on the key sectors of energy, environment and transport while also providing support to SMEs development and social sector infrastructures. By encouraging joint European operations, the NIF thus paves the way for concrete donors’ coordination, division of labour and harmonisation of procedures.

Find out moreNIF website http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/neighbourhood/regional-cooperation/irc/investment_en.htmNIF fiche www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=321&id_type=10

The NIF is an innovative instrument of the ENP that brings together grant funding from the European Commission and the EU Member States and loans from European Public Finance Institutions.

Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF)

“If all the connections become operational the three [South Caucasus] countries together might be able to export to the EU or Iran and can also exchange energy [among themselves]”

N The substation at Zahesi hydro-power plant, located in Mtskheta region near Tbilisi that has an average annual capacity of 160 million kW/h. Hydropower accounts for 85% of Georgia’s electricity, which is enough for local needs.

Joining forces The project, dubbed the largest venture in Georgia’s power sec-tor, is supported by several international finance institutions: KfW has allocated €100 million (€75 million loan plus €25 mil-lion grant), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Devel-opment (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have earmarked €160 million (€80 million loan each), and the Neigh-bourhood Investment Facility (NIF), has provided an €8 million grant. The Georgian government, too, will cover expenditure of €20-40 million. Created in 2008, the NIF is an innovative financial instrument

of the European Neighborhood Policy, aiming to help the Eastern and Southern neighbours finance big infrastructure investment when they fail to get direct funding from the private sector. The idea is to create a partnership, attract grant aid from the European Commission and EU member states, and use them to le-verage loans from International Finance Institutions and contributions from the partner states. Last year, €99.7 million of NIF grants generated a total contribution from European finance institutions of around €2.5 billion. According to Richard Weber, Deputy Director-General of EuropeAid, after 18 months of operation, the NIF’s global port-folio stands at some €9 billion.For the Georgian project, the NIF grant, made available in late 2008, has been “a huge success”, said Andres, adding that this contribution allowed the launch of technical preparations more than one year before the agreement for full financing was concluded in April 2010. In particular, the NIF’s €8 million has been used to pay the engineering and consulting company Fichtner for the technical appraisal, developing the conceptual design and budgeting. The company will supervise the project implementation. Remaining funds of up to €3 million will finance specific measures defined to mitigate environmental impacts of the line construction. Technical preparations have been completed, and the tender process is now un-derway. Construction works started in July. In May 2012, the line will be at least partly operational and is due to reach full capacity a year later.

Increased stability and trade Hydropower accounts for 85% of Georgia’s electricity, enough for domestic needs. The country imports electricity only in winter, while exporting surplus power in summer. The new transmission line will help diminish seasonal electricity losses: during heavy rains the hydro power plants get more water than they can cope with, so the water is spilled. “When the big plants start operation and we have this line, we’ll be able to prevent the losses and boost exports,” said Sulkhan Zumburidze, Chief of the Rehabilitation Department of Georgian State Elektrosystem (GSE), the state owned electricity transmission compa-ny, which will own and operate the grid through its subsidiary Energotrans.The new line will have a capacity of up to 1,000 MW, excessive for Georgia’s cur-rent demand, but pertinent in the face of increasing investment. “By 2018 the big hydro power plants will have been constructed, and this line will be fully utilised,” Valishvili said.Last year, Georgia saw construction start of several new hydro power plants, in-cluding Namakhvani HPP with 1.5 billion

“When the big plants start operation and we have this line, we’ll be able to prevent the losses and boost exports”

“Sudden disruptions of electricity supply to the capital, Tbilisi, and other eastern Georgian regions will be ruled out”

N The premises of the central dispatching centre of the Georgian State Elektrosystem (GSE), the state-run electricity transmission company in downtown Tbilisi. The centre is in charge of Georgian power grid’s operating management.

N Michael Andres Director Sector Coordination South Caucasus, Energy/Transport of KfW, German Development Cooperation at KfW’s Tbilisi office, pointing at the map, saying that there is potential to make the Black Sea Energy Transmission System a regional network, embracing also Azerbaijan and Armenia.


“Environment, water treatment or drinking water, big infrastructure installations for ports and airports, but also the constructionof hospitals and schools are among the priorities of the NIF.”

“We have a global portfolio over 18 months of roughly €9 billion of operation, which is the total amount of potential investments.”

Interview with Richard Weber

by these institutions, as well as the part that is financed by the Partner Countries themselves. Of these, €5 billion are envisaged for the South and €4 billion for the East.Of the total amount, €4 billion is the part financed by the loans of the IFIs, and the EU subsidies account for €170 mil-lion. So you see that the leverage of our grant is very impor-tant. With these +/- €200 million we generate investments worth +/- €9 billion.

Is there any conditionality attached to all these instruments?

Of course! A lot of money is at stake, so we need to nego-tiate with Partner Countries the matrix of cooperation. We agree on the objectives and expected results together. But at the end of the day they are in the driving seat in imple-menting the reforms that will ensure a decent life for their citizens.

ved, or when they get direct access to drinking water. Their quality of life is improved as a result. In Egypt in the South or Moldova in the East, the NIF is intervening to improve water quality.The NIF is also, for example, financing with the Develop-ment Bank of the Council of Europe, the refurbishment of the central hospital in Chisinau, which is the key medical fa-cility in the country. In parallel, in Ukraine, the NIF finances the electricity networks and installations. All these projects have a direct impact on the life of the people.

What is the distribution of funds for the East and the South?

For the time being we have a global portfolio over 18 months of roughly €9 billion of operation, which is the total amount of potential investments. That includes the grants and loans from the IFIs and partners of the consortia formed

Q: What is the NIF trying to achieve?

Richard Weber: The Neighbourhood Investment Facility is a young instrument. It was created by the European Com-mission in June 2008 to try to help our neighbours in the East and South finance big infrastructural investment when they cannot be directly financed by the private sector. These investments mainly concern public services to the citizens. Such public goods need large scale funding which each country may find difficult to obtain on the market in the form of loans, especially in difficult times like the present financial crisis. Then grants of the type that the NIF provides can be very useful.

What are the priorities of the new facility? Could you give some examples?

Environment, water treatment or drinking water, transport, especially big infrastructure installations for ports and air-ports, interconnection between electricity networks, ener-gy saving, renewable energy. The social sector is also high on the agenda, for example, construction of hospitals and schools.There is also support to SMEs through risk capital envelo-pes, when the private sector perceives risks astoo high to lend money to SMEs, and the NIF can promote innovation in our partner countries.

What are the challenges in implementing the NIF?

The biggest one is to reconcile the NIF funds with the coun-tries needs. In the first 18 months of operations, the facility had at its disposal +/- €150 million of grants. This is clearly not enough to subsidise all submitted investments in nei-ghbouring countries, and a stringent selection, which is of course a challenge, had to be made.

What is the direct impact of NIF-funded projects on citizens in the Partner Countries?

A project that funds a water treatment facility is a good example of impact. The people concerned will immediately feel the difference when the quality of the water is impro-

Blending loans and grants to finance investments for the NeighbourhoodThe Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF) is an innovative financial instrument of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), whose primary objective is to kick-start key infrastructure projects that require considerable financial resources, as well as to support private sector development in the neighbourhood region. The NIF is aimed at creating a partnership, pooling together grant resources from the European Commission and the EU Member States and using them to leverage loans from European Finance Institutions as well as contributions from the partner countries.The leverage effect of NIF contributions is high: in 2009, €99.7 million of NIF grants generated a total contribution from European Finance Institutions of approximately €2.5 billion – in other words almost €25 for each euro provided by the NIF – and the total cost of the investments concerned reached over € 5 billion. The projects chosen – from water treatment to hospitals – “have a direct impact on the life of the people,” explains Richard Weber, Deputy Director-General of EuropeAid in an interview with the ENPI Info Centre.

NIF - Neighbourhood Investment FacilityTimeframe 2007-2013

Bringing together grant funding from the European Commission and the EU Member States and loans from European Public Finance Institutions, the NIF (Neighbourhood Investment Facility) is an innovative instrument of the ENP, aiming at mobilising additional funding for infrastructure projects in the Neighbourhood area. The NIF focuses on the key sectors of energy, environment and transport while also providing support to SMEs development and social sector infrastructures. NIF operations constitute a practical lever focusing on countries with ENP Action Plans agreed with the EU. On a case-by-case basis, other Neighbourhood countries may also benefit from NIF grant support for projects of cross border or regional nature to which the EU and its Neighbouring partners attach particular interest.

http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/neighbourhood/regionalcooperation/irc/investment_en.htm


PeopleEnergyEnvironment TransportTransport

MOlDOVA

First TRACECA Investment Forum may help propel Moldovan apples to European supermarkets

A new cutting-edge logistics node may emerge over the next decade on a 40-hectare plot of land near the town of Marculesti, 150km north of Chisinau. A feasibility study under the EU-funded International Logistics Centres in the Western NIS and the Caucasus project, which is part of the TRACECA programme, has marked the first step towards putting vision into practice.

Text by ENPI Info Centrephotos by TRACECA

The next step is to present the project to the international financial markets. This is precisely what the first TRACECA Investment Forum, due to be held on 12 October in Brussels, will seek to do. The Forum will offer 22 priority projects, including the Marculesti International Logistics Centre, to investors. Chances are high that the Forum will help put Marculesti firmly on track. Among sources of financing the future ILC, the draft feasibil-ity report released in July 2010 suggested the Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF). With a relatively small share of funding to cover the cost of a container terminal (€0.61 million at


Five companies have expressed varying degrees of interest, including two local transport/logistics service providers, which are considering long-term leases of the future warehouses and other facilities, as well as two local pro-cessing companies in the agricultural sector.

Creating new jobs If the Marculesti project materializes, the northern regions of Moldova will become a regional hub, thus improving the competitiveness of the TRACE-CA route in terms of liability of transport, reduction of travel time and costs.There will be ample opportunities for small and medium size businesses

in the local freight transport and logistics sector. A major logistics hub will foster a more balanced regional development and help relieve poverty by boosting employ-ment in the agricultural sector. It will enable a greater volume of exports, especially fresh and processed agricultural products. “Air cargo operations started here in 2009, and today they are mostly related to Chi-nese imports,” Sergiu Ciobanu, the General Manager of the FIAM told the ENPI Info Centre. “The future ILC could help local farmers consolidate their harvested apples and other fruits widely cultivated in the region, in order to export them to the Euro-pean market,” he added.

N Andreas Schoen, team leader of the International Logistics Centres in the Western NIS and the Caucasus project.

N Eduard Biriucov, TRACECA National Secretary of Moldova.

Participating countriesArmenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey closely associated

Timeframe2009-2011

Budget€ 3.440.500

ObjectiveIt tackles in particular the lack of modern logistic transport centres/nodes and common legal ground for its integration and development, since technological connection between these centres directly affects the development of trade and international transport (import, export and transit) in the Caucasus and Black Sea region countries. Find out moreTRACECA main fiche www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=272&id_type=10International Logistical Centers (TRACECA) fiche www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=268&id_type=10ENPI Info Centre – Transport thematic portal www.enpi-info.eu/themeeast.php?subject=8ENPI Info Centre report – “First TRACECA Investment Forum opens a gate to financial markets”http://enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=22367&id_type=1&lang_id=450&subject=2-4-6-7

The project supports international trade and facilitates the movements of goods along the TRACECA corridor through improving logistics capabilities, interoperability and multimodal transport.

International Logistical Centers (TRACECA)

www.traceca-org.org

current prices of the total estimated cost of €16.7 million), NIF will be crucial for attracting larger investment by the EBRD and other International Financial Institutions.

Why Marculesti?Several factors make Marculesti an excellent choice for a logistics hub. The area is an important juncture of a major TRACECA corridor between Romania and Ukraine. Also through existing railway and road connections it links the TRACECA region with its neighbours to the north

(Ukraine), east (Ukraine and Russia), south (the Black Sea region) and west (Romania and beyond). “And last but not least, the future logistics centre will build on the facili-ties of the former military airfield, which has been converted into the Free Interna-tional Airport Marculesti (FIAM),” said Eduard Biriucov, TRACECA National Secretary of Moldova, in an interview with the ENPI Info Centre. The team of the EU-funded International Logistics Centres project led by Andreas Schoen investigated the perspectives of the endeavor. The idea is to construct the Marculesti ILC in three phases, adding modules like in a LEGO toy structure. When fully developed, provisionally by 2022, the Centre will incorporate a container service centre with packing, repairing and washing facilities, as well as an open stor-age for railroad containers. There will also be a Customs terminal with its own ware-houses and open storage.Logistics-intensive industries and trade will develop as long-term leasing tenants will be able to build their own facilities for processing, storage, etc.

Reputation mattersTransport operators are already eyeing the Free International Airport Marculesti. They find the FIAM attractive due to its reputation of a well-managed and financially sound company whose credentials have been recognized by commercial banks.

N Sergiu Ciobanu, the General Manager of the FIAM.

N The Free International Airport Marculesti (FIAM) is up and running.


the water by the ships during navigation,” says Bakhtiyar Muradov, adding: “Today this practice is not allowed any more, and strict control must be applied by port authorities over how much oil ships take on board, and how much oil-waste is handed over once docking in.”

The issue of waste management Thus sea ports should be equipped with relevant infrastructure for waste process-ing and utilisation. According to Muradov, Azerbaijan does have waste manage-ment practice, but the country could definitely improve it through the application of different methodologies and best practices.One example: “Today in Baku sea port we have several operators responsible for vessels waste management,” continues Mr Muradov, “but EU experts have ex-plained that a single operator fully responsible for the job, even working through subcontractors, could allow a more transparent tariff policy and would ensure more efficiency in the anti-pollution protection. This practice seems to be working well in other countries of the region, and it could be good for us too.”The TRACECA-SASEPOL project represents an opportunity for the beneficiary countries to capitalise on international experience available from experts provid-ed by the EU and, with their national experience, develop and implement ‘joined up’ policy packages at regional and national levels. The project seeks to raise technical standards so that the partner countries can ad-vance in meeting the requirements of the IMO (International Maritime Organiza-tion) Conventions on safety of navigation, security of transport and environmental protection. The creation of a State Port Control Service is one such requirement. Its officers should have the right to inspect that weather safety norms are applied, and should not allow ships to enter ports if they do not meet necessary standards. “As far as ports are concerned,” says Muradov, “the project aims at providing tech-nical assistance for the creation of one role-model port, which would meet inter-national safety standards, in each of the five participating countries, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine. This has already begun in Odessa, and recommendations were passed on to the other countries. As far as we are con-cerned, due to the upcoming transfer of port facilities from Baku to Alat suburb, all requirements will be applied to the new port construction, which will be erected according to the highest maritime standards.”

N Bakhtiyar Muradov

“Today strict control must be applied by port authorities over how much oil ships take on board, and how much oil-waste is handed over once docking in”

“I learned a lot from international experts about reactions to oil-spills and prevention of pollution spread”

AzERbAijAn

Safer ports in cleaner waters towards international standards of maritime safetyA country with a rich history of maritime cargoes and transportation is taking serious steps to foster higher standards of environmental safety at sea and in its ports. This is how Azerbaijani officials, supported by European experts through the TRACECA-SASEPOL project, are modernising their country’s maritime transport of passengers and goods, keeping an eye on environmental protection.


BAKU - “Safety is a basic element for the development of maritime transport: we are not only talking about human safety, which is very important, but also about environmental protection, protection from sea pollution, and also protection of port facilities. Today more than ever it is important to respect high maritime safety standards” says Bakhtiyar Muradov, the coordinator of the EU-funded TRACECA-

SASEPOL (maritime SAfety, SEcurity and POLlu-tion) project. The initiative – funded to the tune of €3.5 mil-lion – aims at facilitating international maritime transport of passengers and goods, and to sup-port maritime safety, security and environmen-tal protection in the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea regions. For example, oil spills and similar catastrophes nowadays heavily affect the ma-rine environment. “But there is another major issue, less known by the public at large, the so called under-shale wa-ters, the gathering of oil and waste thrown into

N The “Koroglu” Oil tanker


Q: What is this project trying to achieve?

Marc Abeille: Our aim is to try to find ‘motorways of the sea’ solutions along every link of the chain – good practices, in-frastructure, equipment, organisation, partnerships, trans-port policies, facilitation, identification of bottlenecks.The project is part of the TRACECA (Transport Corridor Eu-rope-Caucasus-Asia) transport programme, an alternative to the dominant freight routes through Russia and Turkey, both entirely overland. We are trying to encourage trans-port networks that make sense, both in distance and sus-tainability, working on intermodality between maritime and land transport along the route.

How do you go about achieving these objectives?

This project focuses entirely on diagnosis and technical as-sistance. Once we have established the diagnosis, we ask what improvements can be envisaged, and at which point along the chain. Until the end of 2010, we will be working on the design of two pilot projects, before handing over for implementation. We do not have our own budget for the projects, just for their preparation, and we will have to iden-tify appropriate financing instruments to match with the necessary investments.

What is the expected impact on the Partner Countries?

You can identify the potential by looking at the existing si-tuation. There are plenty of exchanges between the Partner Countries themselves, with Europe, and with Asia, and the-refore there is transport traffic. The region is a hub for trade between China and Europe.The central freight route should be an obvious choice, it should be competing with the southern maritime route through the Suez Canal. But take an example: Kazakhstan

has a border with China, and to cross it, goods take the Chinese maritime route to the Baltic ports, before travelling overland through Russia back down to Kazakhstan – and this with Kazakhstan wanting to develop a direct transit role from Asia to Europe.So you realise the enormous development potential that would be unleashed through a central transport route – this is the great prize at stake.

What are the greatest difficulties you face?

Political tensions are a major obstacle: the conflict between Russia and Georgia in the summer of 2008 did nothing to encourage international operators to use the TRACECA cor-ridor.At the same time, we have to overcome a number of ad-ministrative hurdles, through which the operators on the ground themselves have to pass. It’s not always easy to ex-plain the value of preliminary tasks, when what people are often asking for is direct financing.

What are the perspectives emerging in this initial phase?

The motorways of the sea are a new type of solution, which can build on the existence, on both the Black Sea and the Caspian, of ferries capable of carrying trains. It’s a mode of transport that has almost completely disappeared in Eu-rope, but which exists in the region, with quality vessels. It could act as a powerful lever: you could go from Turkmenistan to Ukraine and Turkey by rail, a far more direct, more secure route than the alternatives.

Maritime highways to unlock a key transport route

The Motorways of the Sea – Black and Caspian Sea project, funded by the EU as part of its broader efforts to consolidate a direct transport corridor from Europe to Asia through the Caucasus, was launched at the beginning of 2009.These maritime highways aim to establish “sustainable, quality transport logistic networks”, Marc Abeille, project team leader told the ENPI Info Centre in an interview. It seeks to identify bottlenecks in the chain connecting land and maritime routes.The reward would see huge economies in transport costs, an ecological windfall, and a strong development potential by rerouting traffic currently forced into detours of thousands of kilometres to reach its destination.

Interview with Marc Abeille

“So you realise the enormous development potential that would be unleashed through a central transport route – this is the great prize at stake”

“We are trying to encourage transport networks that make sense, both in distance and sustainability”

The transfer of knowledge from expert to expertAn essential component of the EU-funded project concerns the training of per-sonnel involved in maritime safety, security and prevention of pollution. Namik Askerov, environmental protection engineer of the state-owned Caspian Shipping Company (CASPAR), attended one of the seminars dealing with reactions to oil-spills. “These seminars are really useful, I learned a lot from international experts about experience concerning reaction to oil-spills and prevention of pollution spread,” he says. The issue of professional development of those involved in maritime safety is a key aspect of the EU-funded project: specialists from six government institutions of Azerbaijan are attending the training sessions. “This country has a rich history of maritime cargoes and transportation,” says John Ostergaard, key expert in mari-time policy and training; “however not everything here meets international safety standards. But the existence of well-educated young specialists give reasons for optimism that the country will keep on pursuing the introduction of high mari-time standards.”

Harmonization of national legislationLast but not least, the TRACECA-SASEPOL project supports the harmonization of national legislation in order to meet International Conventions. Although Azerbai-jan joined most of the IMO and International Labour Organisation conventions, their recommendations have not been fully implemented in law. According to Ah-mad Ismayilov, head of legal issues and international relations department of the State Maritime Administration, “TRACECA SASEPOL plays an important role in the process of efficient and comprehensive integration of these conventions’ results into national legislation.” In addition, the project also supports Azerbaijan rein-forcing cooperation with the other Caspian Sea countries in order to strengthen

the Tehran Convention which foresees an overall improvement of the Caspian Sea en-vironment.Azerbaijan is taking serious steps towards the modernisation of the country’s maritime transport: the road ahead might be long, but no efforts are being spared and results are at hand for safer ports in cleaner seas.

N An oil tanker at the Caspian Sea

“The existence of well-educated young specialists give reasons for optimism that the country will keep on pursuing the introduction of high maritime standards”

Participating countriesAzerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, as well as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan

Timeframe2009-2011

Budget€ 3.5 million

ObjectiveThe project aims to assure safe and secure maritime links for passengers, crews, ships and cargoes; it fosters higher standards of environmental safety at sea and in the relevant ports; it contributes to creating a fully integrated multimodal transport corridor, and strives to provide transport customers with highly developed supply chains. Find out moreTRACECA Maritime safety project fiche www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=309&id_type=10ENPI Info Centre – Transport webpage www.enpi-info.eu/themeeast.php?subject=8European Commission – transport relations Caucasus/Central Asiahttp://ec.europa.eu/transport/international/regional_cooperation/caucasus_central-asia_en.htm

Supports the development of common security management, maritime safety and ship pollution prevention for the Black Sea and Caspian Sea

Maritime safety, security and pollution (SASEPOL)

www.sasepol.eu



Thibault Raisson: We are promoting best practices in the civil aviation sector standards in the Partner Countries, na-mely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine as well as four Central Asian countries. We work on improving air transport safety, security and environment. This sounds rather abstract, but let me give one striking example. The average cost of an airplane crash is €56 mil-lion in material damages, while the loss of human lives is of course priceless. Now, our entire project costs €5 million. If we succeed in achieving the goals set, we can make an important contribution to improve the safety and security of all travelers.The issuing authority for safety rules that are recognized worldwide is the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Our project helps Civil Aviation Authorities of each Partner Country to reach these minimum standards. There are also European regu-lations, which are more stringent than the in-ternational, therefore we also support Partner keen to adopt them in reaching this goal

How are you planning to achieve these objectives?First, we assess the situation and the needs in each country. This gives us a clear idea of what we can offer by way of sup-port. Normally it would be training, technical assistance and best practices exchanges. In principle, life-long training in civil aviation is crucial. Every pilot has to go through trai-ning every six months. Let us again consider a grave accident with fatalities. Any

such accident triggers an investigation. The list of parties touched by such an enquiry is quite long: the manufacturer, the maintenance company; the carrier, the pilot, the search and rescue authority and the investigating authority. In this chain, the Civil Aviation Authorities directly impact safety through the regulation implementation and oversight. By dedicating most of the technical support to them, we hope to help Authorities to globally improve safety. The same reasoning applies to security and environment-related is-sues. The EU has a so-called ‘black list’ for airlines from third coun-tries with non satisfactory safety records. We help countries get out of this “black list”. Naturally we help other countries not to get into it.

What is the expected impact of your project on the citizens?

It is straightforward. Passengers will feel more secure if they know that their national carriers have a decent safety record. Eventually the project will help save people’s lives.

What are your main challenges?

I would single out the following one: we have to be flexible since we deal with two different groups of countries. One includes the EU’s neighbours, namely the three South Cau-casus states, Moldova and Ukraine. The objective vis-à-vis these countries is to help them reach European standards. The other group involves Central Asian states. For them the expectations are different. We want to help them to fully comply with the ICAO standards and develop their capaci-ties.

Better regulations for safer air travel in TRACECA Partners

The Civil Aviation Safety and Security Project, funded by the EU under the broader TRACECA Transport Programme, may focus on the details of standards and regulations, but ultimately it aims to help save lives in the air, according to Project Director Thibault Raisson.The project aims to improve air transport safety and security by helping national authorities meet international and European standards, through training, technical assistance and exchange of best practices. But ultimately it is the public that draws the benefit: “Passengers will feel more secure if they know that their national carriers have a decent safety record. Eventually the project will help save people’s lives.”

Interview with Thibault Raisson

“Passengers will feel more secure if their national carriers have a decent safety record. Eventually the project will help save people’s lives”

“We promote best practices in the civil aviation sector standards… and work on improving air transport safety, security and environment”

AzERbAijAn

At the cross-roads of development

With major infrastructure projects under way to open up the trans-Caucasus route from Asia to Europe, the International Logistical Centres financed under the EU’s TRACECA programme will provide key logistical hubs for increased intermodality and efficiency of the transport corridor. At the new Caspian Sea port being built in Alat, one such centre is set to make Azerbaijan a vital link in the chain.

Text and Photos by Shahin Abbasov

Baku – Some 70km south-west of the Azeri capital Baku, at Alat on the Caspian Sea, a sprawling new port will soon cover 450 hect-ares of land: on that site, 50 hectares have been set aside to host Azerbaijan’s first International Logistical Centre (ILC), a key project financed by the European Commission to facilitate development of the Europe-Caucasus-Asia transport corridor (TRACECA).According to Akif Mustafayev, TRACECA national secretary in Azer-baijan, the ILCs are one of five EU-funded technical projects to de-velop the transport corridor at a total cost of € 15 million. For the ILC project, the EU has allocated just under € 3.5 million for 2009-2011. The project supports international trade, and facilitates movement of goods along the TRACECA corridor by improving logistic capaci-ties, interoperability and multimodal transport, and the development of regional cooperation. Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, as well as countries of Central Asia, and Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey participate in the ILC project, which aims to establish

N Abid Sharifov


N Modern freight traffic cannot be efficient without logistical centres.

for everybody – for cargo senders, receivers and finally for consumers.” This position is shared by independent expert Togrul Juvarly, a member of Azerbaijan’s National Public Committee for European Integration. He said that due to overpriced transit tariffs, Central Asian countries cur-rently prefer to route cargoes via Russia. “We need to remove administrative obstacles and reduce tariffs for ef-ficient use of the TRACECA corridor,” Juvarly said. “The logistical centres will facilitate the development of multimodal traffic and use all means

of transport. In emergency situations, when you need re-direction of traffic and change of transport mean, logistical centres are indispensable.”The two-year TRACECA technical project has organised a national seminar for gov-ernment officials and private sector, as well as a roundtable in the Transport Minis-try to increase awareness of the advantages of logistics for cargo traffic. Training in logistics is key to modernizing transport infrastructure. Currently, the Baku-based Aviation Academy provides courses, while two more institutions – the Azerbaijan State Technical University and the Marine Academy – will follow soon.

Boosting container trafficAkif Mustafayev from TRACECA believes the creation of logistical centres will boost container traffic. “Most of the cargo in the world is carried by container. However, TRACECA countries lag behind due to the underdevelopment of logistical infra-structure. Container traffic is only about 10% of total freight in TRACECA, while in EU countries it reaches 50-60%,” he said. The value of logistical centres increases in view of the large infrastructure projects currently under way. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be launched in 2012, and a rail tunnel under the Bosphorus connecting the Europe-an and Asian shores of Turkey will open soon. Then, a direct rail connection between Shanghai and London will be established, allowing trains to go from China to the UK without cargo reload. Large-capacity ferries

“Cargo transit is the most long-term and sustainable economic resource of the Southern Caucasus. But it is only possible if modern infrastructure and coordinated tariff and customs policy are established”

“If we manage to attract even 3-4% of this flow [of container traffic from China to Europe and America], it will be a huge success for TRACECA”

modern logistical transport centres to top EU standards. The technological connection between these centres di-rectly affects trade and international transport (import, export and transit) in the Black Sea, Caucasus and Central Asia. “Alat is very well located for Azerbaijan’s first Logisti-

cal Centre. It will accept ships and ferries including large-capacity vessels. The rail-way and highway which are part of the TRACECA corridor’s central segment pass nearby,” Mustafayev said. Construction, which begins in early 2010, will take five to six years, financed by the Azerbaijani government and IFI loans.

€160 million in EU funds since 1993Since 1993, the EU has financed 15 investment and 61 technical projects within the TRACECA programme, in total worth € 160 million. Thanks to the programme, cargo transport had increased from 3 million tons in 1993-1997 to 53 million in 2007. More than 150 million tons of cargo were carried via the corridor since 1998. Modern freight traffic cannot be fully efficient without logistical centres that handle the automated processes of unloading, uploading, sorting of products, their pack-ing and containerization. Until now, Azerbaijan did not have centres meeting EU standards. Alat should change that: “The idea is to provide high-quality transport of larger volumes of cargo within a short time and using less transport means. It avoids the spoiling of goods and en-sures full utilization of transport means,” said Mustafayev. “It’s win-win

“Thanks to the programme, cargo transport had increased from 3 million tons in 1993-1997 to 53 million in 2007”

“The idea is to provide high-quality transport of larger volumes of cargo within a short time and using less transport means… It’s win-win for everybody”



Dr Ashraf Hamed: Our main objective is to support TRACECA in ‘doing’ things, by which I mean assist in the implementa-tion of transport investment projects by providing studies, developing business and master plans, analyzing financial and technical feasibility and promoting public-private par-tnerships. The project’s principal task is coordination. There has always been a project like this from the early days of TRACECA, and normally it would run for two years. Our term is three years.

How are you planning to achieve these objectives?

We prioritize projects, select the best and help move them from the feasibility studies to the implementation. We also aim to diversify the funding by tapping into international financial institutions and mobilizing resources of the private sector. I believe that for TRACECA to become more effective its structure should be reformed. The ownership should be with the participating countries, rather than with the EU. This will not happen overnight. Some countries are active, others are less active. In addition, we need a higher level of engagement, a more

intensive dialogue between the Partner Countries. The task is to show progress in terms of projects, for which feasibility studies are a prerequisite.

What is the expected impact of your project on the citizens?

When you improve transporta-tion you get a positive impact on the economy. A new road or an improved one will attract bu-siness, services, create new jobs. It will impact the life of the local communities.


There are many bottlenecks. To begin with, TRACECA corri-dors are not all that attractive. Say, a container leaves Berlin and gets to Odessa in two days. Then it sits at the border for 10 days… Border crossings in TRACECA countries are notoriously time consuming. Practices should be changed, and maybe there should be a common visa regulation for drivers. Another challenge is getting countries to agree on common positions. All our projects should have a regional dimension, which means there should be more than one country involved in each. And it is difficult to get them agree on things.

Some may see this challenge in the different approach to tackling problems and pursuing targets in this part of the world. For me, this is not a reason for lowering expectations. One simply has to be supportive, adaptive and responsive to our Partners’ needs and initiatives. This is what our team will continue to do.

The big IDEA: coordination for an ambitious programmeFor an initiative as wide-ranging as the EU-funded TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) programme, coordination is all-important. This is the role of the €6.6 million Regional Transport Dialogue and Networks Interoperability (IDEA) project, the current phase of which began in May 2009.“Our main objective is to support TRACECA in ‘doing’ things,” Dr. Ashraf Hamed, Transport Project Development Expert told the ENPI Info Centre, adding: “We prioritize projects, select the best and help move them from the feasibility studies to the implementation.” For Dr. Hamed, the ultimate impact is clear: improved transport links feed into economic growth, which impacts into the life of local communities.

When you improve transportation you get a positive impact on the economy. It will impact the life of the local communities.

“We assist the implementation of transport investment projects through studies, developing business and master plans, analyzing financial and technical feasibility, etc”

Interview with Ashraf Hamedwill be used at the only sea section of corridor through the Caspian, said Mustafayev, with the Azerbaijan State Caspian Shipping Company purchasing special ferries able to carry 52 wagon rakes. Every year, China ships 10 million containers with cargoes to Europe and America and mostly uses ocean transport. “If we manage to attract even 3-4% of this flow, it will be a huge success for TRACECA,” Mustafayev said. Expert Togrul Juvarly is optimistic about development of the region’s transport infra-structure: “Cargo transit is the most long-term and sustainable economic resource of the Southern Caucasus. But it is only possible if modern infrastructure and coordi-nated tariff and customs policy are established.”

N Baku railway today: the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be launched in 2012.

Participating countriesArmenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey closely associated

Timeframe2009-2011

Budget€ 3.440.500

ObjectiveIt tackles in particular the lack of modern logistic transport centres/nodes and common legal ground for its integration and development, since technological connection between these centres directly affects the development of trade and international transport (import, export and transit) in the Caucasus and Black Sea region countries. Find out moreTRACECA main fiche www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=272&id_type=10International Logistical Centers (TRACECA) fiche www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=268&id_type=10ENPI Info Centre – Transport thematic portal www.enpi-info.eu/themeeast.php?subject=8

The project supports international trade and facilitates the movements of goods along the TRACECA corridor through improving logistics capabilities, interoperability and multimodal transport.

International Logistical Centers (TRACECA)

www.traceca-org.org


ARMEniAThe Yerevan-Tbilisi railway rehabilitation also needs to se-cure cooperation between Armenian and Georgian admin-istrations, according to Giovanni Mastrandrea.

Opening borders Three studies were undertaken by the project: the first was a feasibility study for the rehabilitation of the Tbilisi-Yerevan railway line, the second on the rehabilitation of the Hrazvan-Ijevan section of the line towards Azerbaijan, where a severe landslide blocked traffic, and the third was a study on the technological rehabilitation of the main Geor-gian railway. It also made a preliminary assessment of the possibility of opening a new link between Vanadzor and Fioletovo, shortening the current route between Yerevan and Tbilisi by around 100 km. It was found that €640-800 million were necessary for the modernization of the railway lines. “It is a very high figure,” says Uffe Holst Jensen, “but trans-port infrastructure is important as it will better connect Armenia to the neighbouring countries. My view is that it links to the opening of borders, facilitating the EU aim to promote regional development and cross-border coopera-tion.”Gagik Grigoryan, head of foreign relations at the Ministry of Transport and Communication, explains that “the num-ber of damaged parts and those not meeting the minimum security standards is high.” He said the studies showed the maximum investments needed and “now we can negotiate with donor companies and the concession operator”.Ashot Melikyan, of the ‘South Caucasian Railway’ company, says the studies show what can be financed by donors but can also act as a guide for further actions.

Railway: the citizens’ choiceThe feasibility study allows potential investors, such as IFIs, immediately to start work that will help provide pas-sangers with faster and more secure railway links, eventu-ally increasing the use of trains over the present-day fixed-run taxis (marshrutkas), the electric line trains or buses. They would be more comfortable, safer and time-saving, and also enable people to carry more.According to Murad Aleksanyan, head of Gyumri station, the Yerevan-Gyumri 154km railway takes 4.5 hours, when a marshrutka takes 1.5 hours, therefore people prefer the lat-ter. “But in case of high speed, the train will gain advantage over marshrutkas, as they will be more comfortable and you can carry more.” Even today, the Yerevan-Tbilisi (12.5 hours) and Yerevan-Batumi (19 hours) trains are a more convenient choice compared to buses and marshrutkas and are largely full over summer.Many people and especially students prefer the Armavir-Yerevan electric train to get to Yerevan in 40 minutes and more comfortably than in buses and marshrutkas, howev-er as Karine Khanoyan, 19, a student from Armavir says “it’s a pity the trains are few in a day.” Departing from Armavir

“Armenia is suffering from its closed borders. The better its transport facilities the better its export possibilities” Uffe Holst Jensen

“The studies showed the maximum investments needed. Now we can negotiate with donor companies and the concession operator”Gagik Grigoryan

N Railway stations in Armavir, Araks, Qober and Alaverdi.

N Gagik Grigoryan.A faster and safer railway for Armenia

Providing better, faster and safer railway services and connecting land-locked Armenia to its neighbours, while at the same time supporting the competitiveness of its economy, was the aim of the Rehabilitation of Railway between Tbilisi and Yerevan project, funded by the EU. The project assessed the possibility of rehabilitating the Yerevan-Tbilisi railway as well as the alternative railway link between Yerevan and Tbilisi via Azerbaijan so they meet international safety standards.

Text and photos by Aghavni Harutyunyan

Yerevan – “Armenia is suffering from its closed borders. The better its transport facilities the better its export possibilities,” says Uffe Holst Jensen, Head of ENP and Operations Section at the EU Delegation in Yerevan. He adds that under the EU’s Eastern Partnership policy, negotiations for comprehensive trade agreement will be launched: “The EU is offering Armenia the possibility to export many goods free of costume duties. Improving transport infrastructure could be a good environment for that.” According to Giovanni Mastrandrea, from the project, “the railway is fairly old. Ini-tially it was properly managed and maintained, but the 1990s saw a gradual lack of maintenance and technical improvements, leading to a rapid decline of the line.”The Tbilisi-Yerevan railway line was inaugurated in 1899 and electrified in 1967,

and is a typical mountain railway. The line is in desperate need of improvements and modernisation, especially as the alternative Yerevan-Tbilisi link via Azerbaijan has for years now gone no further than Dilijan. The result of improvements on the Tbilisi-Yere-van line would be: 50 trains running per day in both directions at a maximum speed of 140 km/h for passenger trains covering the distance in five hours, instead of more than 12 hours today, and maximum 80/100 km/h for freight trains.

N A railway map of the CIS.



Rene Meeuws: The project aims to help train well qualified and competent staff, who would in turn contribute to the development of sustainable transport infrastructure and modern transport services in the TRACECA countries. To be more precise, we are trying to improve the training capacity of universities and other higher education establishments that breed transport specialists.

How are you planning to achieve these objectives?

The bulk of our work has to do with developing new curri-cula and introducing new teaching techniques in transport planning. Essentially, we teach university professors how to teach subjects related to transport planning and invest-ment appraisal. But to come to this, one needs to prepare the ground. We start by reviewing course contents and curriculums in our partner universities. In parallel, we disseminate informa-tion among the relevant university faculties about state-of-the-art teaching techniques. My team then helps develop course materials on transport planning techniques, invest-ment appraisal and other subjects. In addition, we organize discussions on how to establish regional training platforms and networks, and conduct training courses for lecturers. For example we are planning to give master classes in two or even three languages (English, Russian and the local lan-guage). The project also assists partners in mastering transport si-mulation and forecasting software. Besides, we disseminate cooperation opportunities with European training institu-

tes and provide access to online libraries and other training materialsOne of our main outputs is an Atlas of TRACECA routes, which we are planning to publish, and make available on-line for all stakeholders and the broader public. This is a unique publication. TRACECA exists 16 years already, and to date no such atlas has ever been produced. This atlas will serve three purposes, namely it can be used as an important promotional tool, a training material and a working document for all parties involved in the implemen-tation of the TRACECA projects.


Our counterparts do not have much experience in trans-port economy-related training methods. Most of the uni-versities we work with have neither the necessary knowled-ge nor the people who would adopt and promote the new teaching techniques. Overall, we have contacted around 50 universities across the TRACECA region, only to discover that their interest and teaching capabilities as far as transport economy-related subjects are concerned are limited. So rather than trying to engage them all, we set up small groups of six or seven ‘champions’ who are really interested in cooperating with us. There is another challenge worth mentioning. All curri-culums that we help universities put together have to go through approval by government ministries, which is time consuming to say the least.

TRACECA training: teaching the teachers to teachBehind the development of modern transport infrastructures and services lay well-trained, qualified and competent staff. This is the target of the EU-funded project, Strengthening Transport Training institutes in the NIS, part of the broader TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) programme, an international transport cooperation initiative between the EU and its Partner Countries in Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia.Team Leader Rene Meeuws tells the ENPI Info Centre in an interview that this is a key link in the transport chain: “We are trying to improve the training capacity of universities and other higher education establishments that breed transport specialists.”The project develops new curricula and teaching techniques in transport planning and teaches university professors how to teach these subjects.

Interview with Rene Meeuws

“The project helps train staff, who would contribute to the development of sustainable transport infrastructure and modern transport services”

for Masis by electric train, 63-year-old vine grower Vladimir Melkumyan, from Met-samor, says “I prefer the train, as it is comfortable and we can get to the place quicker than by marshrutkas.” The train is also more convenient for people taking their harvest to the Yerevan mar-kets. Rustam Sultanyan, 53, who lives in Artashar and works on his garden plot says: “We can’t carry more than a little package by bus or marshrutka, but by train we can transport a lot more goods.”The environmental factor should be part of the equation, says Michal Nekvasil, Dep-uty Head of Operations of EU Delegation to Georgia. In his words, “It is crucial to re-habilitate the Tbilisi-Yerevan railway as soon as possible, ideally before the road con-nection between the two capitals is modernised. Why? Because today most of the goods and many passengers, especially between Yerevan and the Black Sea coast, are transported by the railway, an environmentally friendly means of transport. A potential shift to the roads would have a damaging impact on the environment.”There is also a security issue today. “When we are travelling with our family we have

no alternative to using a train. It is hard for children to be in a car. It will be better if the train moves faster but we know the railway is not in a good condition,” says mother of two Taguhi Harutyu-nyan, from Yerevan. Considering all these factors, the improvement of this railway link will definitely make it more competitive to other transport means.

“Offering faster and more secure railway links will definitely increase the use of trains over the present-day fixed-run taxis (marshrutkas), the electric line trains or buses”

Participating countriesArmenia, Georgia

TimeframeFrom October 2008 for 12 months

Budget€ 579,700.00

ObjectiveTo rehabilitate the direct railway line between Tbilisi and Yerevan as well as the alternative railway link between Yerevan and Tbilisi via Azerbaijan so it can function as a safe and reliable link for goods and passenger transport for land-locked Armenia reducing journey times to a level that makes it competitive to other transport means. The project aims at defining, arranging and estimating the global cost of the execution of works and supplies for rehabilitation. Find out moreEU Delegation in Armenia www.delarm.ec.europa.eu Land Transport Safety and Security www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=213&id_type=10

Rehabilitation of Railway between Tbilisi and Yerevan projectwww.enpi-fleg.org

Projects in Action – Eastern Neighbours78

Find out moreEuropean Neighbourhood Policy (ENP)It was developed after the EU’s enlargement in 2004 with 10 new countries, in order to avoid the emergence of new dividing lines in Europe. Through it, the EU offers its neighbours a privi-leged relationship, building upon a mutual commitment to common values - democracy and hu-man rights, rule of law, good governance, market economy principles and sustainable develop-ment. The ENP offers a deeper political relationship and economic integration through reforms as a means of achieving peace, stability and economic prosperity. The participating countries are: Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mol-dova, Morocco, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine. Although Russia is also an EU neighbour, and benefits from the ENPI, relations are developed through a Strategic Partnership.

ENP http://ec.europa.eu/world/enp/index_en.htm

European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI)The financial arm of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), in place since January 2007. It is the single financial instrument that replaced the MEDA (South), TACIS (East) and various other financial instruments. The ENPI aims at supporting partner countries achieve sustainable devel-opment and approximation to EU policies and standards, based on agreed priorities. For the budgetary period 2007-2013, approximately €12 billion in EC funding are available to support reforms in neighbouring states.

ENPI http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/neighbourhood/overview/index_en.htm

Useful links

Commissioner Enlargement and ENP http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/fule/

ENP website http://ec.europa.eu/world/enp/welcome_en.htm

EuropeAid http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/index_en.htm

External Action Service (EEAS) http://eeas.europa.eu/index_en.htm

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Documents

Cooperation through the eyes of journalists in the East