WRITTEN QUESTION E-1183/00 by Cristiana Muscardini (UEN) to the Commission. EU enlargement and environmental protection.
Date: 2000-04-12
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Central and Eastern European countries, accession negotiations, environmental protection

3.4.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 103 E/7

The Prime Minister of Bulgaria met the Commissioner responsible for Enlargement on 29 November 1999.
On that occasion, the Commission and Bulgaria reached an understanding, signed by the Bulgarian
Minister of Foreign affairs, on the issue of the closure and decommissioning of units 1 to 4 of the
Kozloduy nuclear power plant. The Bulgarian Government committed itself to definitively close units 1
and 2 before 2003. The final decision on the closure dates for units 3 and 4 will be taken on the occasion
of the 2002 review of the Bulgarian energy strategy. According to the understanding, closure dates for
units 3 and 4 will be before the presently envisaged closure dates of 2008 and 2010, respectively. The
Commission(cid:146)s position is that the definitive closure of those units should take place in 2006 at the latest.

Honouring these closure commitments, the Commission has undertaken to provide financial assistance to
the implementation of the decommissioning of the Bohunice V1, Ignalina and Kozloduy 1-4 nuclear
power reactors as well as in support of consequential measures in the energy sector. Financing memoranda
on such support from PHARE funds from the 1999 budget have already been signed with Slovakia and
Lithuania, committing € 10 million to each of these countries. The Commission has firmly indicated
further annual support of € 20 million each over the forthcoming years. This support will amount to
€ 150 million for Slovakia as well as for Lithuania by the end of the present 2000-2006 financial
perspective. As part of the understanding reached with Bulgaria, the Commission offered a multi-annual
assistance package amounting to € 200 million for the period until 2006. The delivery of half of this
amount will depend on the confirmation of the understanding on definitive closure dates for units 3 and 4
in 2002. The Commission has further engaged in preparatory steps to deliver the bulk of this financial
support via European bank for reconstruction and development (EBRD)-managed international grant funds
to be established during the course of this year. In addition, Euratom loans have been offered to the three
countries. On 18 April 2000, the Commission approved a loan of € 212 million for Bulgaria.

With regard to particular conditions which the three candidate countries set in return for their decisions to
close these reactors, it needs to be noted that Lithuania and Bulgaria made the reservations to take the final
decisions on the closure of Kozloduy units 3 and 4 and Ignalina unit 2 in the revised national energy
strategies to be adopted in 2002 (Bulgaria) and 2004 (Lithuania). The debate in some of these countries
has also exposed the wish of some political forces to link effective closure to financial assistance from the
Community. The Commission has categorically rejected such linkage, whilst agreeing to provide support to
the implementation of the decommissioning decisions as mentioned above. The Commission is closely
monitoring the implementation of necessary steps towards closure and decommissioning and has made its
financial assistance conditioned on the beneficiary countries(cid:146) compliance with the closure commitments.
This includes the adoption of adequate provisions under domestic legislation.

Apart from this, no particular (cid:145)guarantees(cid:146) in terms of action to be taken to decommission the reactors
were agreed. The Commission and the candidate countries are, however, aware that the negotiation
process on accession, in particular the opening and closure of negotiations on the energy chapter and the
ratification of the accession instruments themselves, offer the Community appropriate means to ensure
compliance with the closure commitments.

The end of the decommissioning effort is not predictable at this stage. The decommissioning process
covers a period of 50 to more than 100 years (final storage of spent fuel, nuclear waste and contaminated
debris). Its precise end is also influenced by the technical solutions chosen within various decommissioning
options.

(2001/C 103 E/007)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1183/00

by Cristiana Muscardini (UEN) to the Commission

Subject: EU enlargement and environmental protection

(12 April 2000)

The disaster caused by the Baia Mare gold mine in Romania polluting the waters of the Danube with a
huge quantity of cyanide has sounded more alarm bells concerning the parlous state of environmental
protection in the countries seeking accession. The situation is alarming in that none of these countries
meets all the requirements laid down by the EU.

C 103 E/8

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

3.4.2001

This being so:

1. Does the Commission regard as sufficient the € 50 billion earmarked for guaranteeing environmental

protection in Agenda 2000?

2. Can the Commission state which countries are complying with the EU(cid:146)s rules in this domain?

3. Does the Commission agree that environmental protection, in addition to the environmental safety
standards already called for in relation to nuclear power stations in the opinion adopted by the
previous European Parliament, should be an essential prerequisite for EU accession?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(26 May 2000)

Agenda 2000 lays down the criteria for membership of the applicant countries of Central and Eastern
Europe. The criteria include adopting and implementing the Community(cid:146)s legal acts. Recognising that this
would be a major task in environment, but aware of the need to avoid an (cid:145)environmental gap(cid:146) between the
Member States and the candidate countries, Agenda 2000 calls for realistic strategies for compliance with
Community legislation, and concrete funding plans for implementation. Therefore, under Agenda 2000,
pre-accession aid and new instruments to assist candidate countries in the costs of accession have been
foreseen. Among these, the Structural policies for pre-accession (ISPA) instrument will provide € 7 000
million over seven years from the year 2000. Half of this will be devoted to environmental infrastructure
investment. Phare, from 2000, will provide € 1 500 million a year for economic and social development,
industrial reconstruction and for developing administrative capacity. This instrument can fund municipal
infrastructure and industry related investments in clean-up and reduction of hazardous waste and
emissions. Finally, the Pre-Accession assistance for agriculture and rural development (Sapard) instrument
provides € 500 million a year for agriculture and rural development schemes,
including afforestation.
However, as the Commission also stressed in Agenda 2000, the funding gap cannot be covered solely by
the pre-accession aid. Important domestic and foreign financial resources, in particular from the private
sector, will have to be mobilised in support of strategies for compliance with Community legislation.

In the light of the accident in the Baia Mare gold mine, the Commission is currently reviewing its
environmental legislation in this area. Compliance with the acquis by candidate countries is constantly
monitored with progress being reported in the regular reports. However, all candidate countries which
have entered accession negotiations on environment with the Community have indicated that they will be
in a position to implement the relevant Community legislation upon accession. In its common positions,
the Union has requested from the candidate countries information on their timetable for transposition and
implementation of the Community legislation in order to assess the situation in each of these countries.

Environment has high priority in the accession negotiations. In its general position for the accession
conference opening the negotiations, the Community explicitly underlined the need to ensure a high level
of environmental protection and in fact, the negotiating positions of the Community lay down a clear
strategy to achieve this objective. This includes in particular giving priority to the transposition and
implementation of industry-related legislation and legislation against trans-boundary pollution. In addition,
the Community has called in its negotiating positions for all new investments in the candidate countries to
comply with the environmental acquis already during the pre-accession period. On the other hand, in its
composite paper accompanying the reports on progress towards accession by the candidate countries, the
Commission also indicated that for those areas of the acquis where considerable adaptations are necessary
and which require substantial effort, including important financial outlays, transitional arrangements could
be spread over a definite period of time provided that candidates can demonstrate that alignment is
underway and that they are committed to detailed and realistic plans for alignment, including the necessary
investments.