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

148
C H A P T E R 7
F I N A N C I N G E N V I R O N M E N TA L I N F R A S T R U C T U R E I N V E S T M E N T S
FIGURE 14: Proportion of environmental expenditure as percentage of GDP (2004–2005)
%
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
FYR
Macedonia
Albania
S T R AT E G I C M O V E S
Bosnia and
Herzegovina
2004 2005
Serbia
Source: Eurostat, government budgets
Kosovo (under
UNSCR 1244)
Croatia
Latvia
Estonia
Romania
Slovakia
Bulgaria
frastructure and to stimulate cooperation among the relevant ministries. Such coordination
is required in relation to the generation of revenue for environmental
improvements and the creation of effective disbursement mechanisms for the financial
resources accumulated. These mechanisms are required to have clearly defined
long-term objectives, transparent project selection procedures, and developed
project implementation and monitoring schemes (EC COM [2001] 304).
Most countries are not able to coordinate their respective donors, as coordination
depends to a large extent on the donors themselves and, in most cases, is not
carried out on a regular basis.
In 2001, it was estimated that, on average, candidate countries needed to increase
their environmental expenditure by 2 to 3 percent of their GDP in order to
achieve compliance with the requirements of the EU environmental acquis. It can
be assumed that the figure would be the same for the current candidate countries
and potential candidates (EC COM [2001] 304).
As can be seen from Figure 14, the majority of SEE countries are slowly increasing
the proportion of their environment-related expenditures and approach-
Poland
Austria
Hungary
Italy
Slovenia
Denmark