Strategic Moves - Regional Environmental Center for Central and ...

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C H A P T E R 5
N AT I O N A L S T R AT E G I C A N D I N S T I T U T I O N A L F R A M E W O R K
BOX 14: Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network for Accession (ECENA)
ECENA was established by high-level officials from SEE environmental ministries in March 2005. It is an informal
network of environmental authorities from the member states, candidate countries and potential candidates. The
members of ECENA are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo (as defined under UNSCR 1244),
the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. The European Commission is also
a member of ECENA.
The mission of ECENA is to protect the environment in its member countries through the effective transposition,
implementation and enforcement of EU environmental legislation by increasing the effectiveness of inspectorate
bodies and promoting compliance with environmental requirements. ECENA builds on previous experiences gained
through the activities of the Accession Countries Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental
Law (AC IMPEL) and BERCEN.
Further information: www.ecena.org
S T R AT E G I C M O V E S
Local-level institutions will be increasingly faced with the obligation to implement
a growing volume of legislation following the process of decentralisation.
If human resources are not properly planned, local-level institutions will also suffer
from a chronic lack of human capacities.
Institutional fragmentation
One of the weaknesses of environmental institutions in SEE is their high level of
fragmentation — that is, competencies are scattered between several institutions that
sometimes do not have good systems of communication with one another. This is a
significant problem and leads to the overlapping of responsibilities and funding.
From Figure 8 it is clear that SEE countries have a high level of fragmentation
compared to CEE countries, which were forced to streamline their institutions in
the pre-accession period. For example, one of the most common reforms in CEE
was to move water-related competencies to the core environmental ministry, as
happened in Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania.
Fragmented competencies sometimes lead to unclear responsibilities: in some
cases, important tasks fall between two institutions and as a result do not receive
the necessary attention. For example, in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
hazardous waste management is not recognised within the competencies of
the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning because the industrial sector
is under the responsibility of the Ministry of the Economy. Likewise, chemicals
come under the responsibility of the Ministry of Health, while pesticides are the responsibility
of the Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy.
Environmental protection agencies
One of the common approaches to separating regulatory functions from policy
functions is to establish environmental protection agencies (EPAs). This can
reduce the fragmentation of institutions, create stronger links to the reporting