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

Dynamics of the PEIP lists of priority projects
From its launch in late 2001, the core of the PEIP was the set of lists of priority
environmental investment projects for each country. The first national PEIP
lists were created in 2002, based on consultations with PEIP focal points from national
ministries responsible for environmental protection. In each PEIP period
(2001–2003, 2003–2005, and 2007–2009) the lists have been updated biannually,
based on information provided by project proponents and national PEIP focal
points. New priority projects have been added and some of the existing projects
were removed from the lists — because of successful financing and/or implementation,
because no progress was made, and/or because high-priority status was lost
in the context of overall national environmentally related policies.
Creating lists of projects that present a harmonised approach to investment
planning is an important task for SEE countries. The absence of such an approach
was one of the key barriers keeping the donor community from delivering
assistance targeted to real environmental priorities, rather than randomly
proposed project ideas. This harmonised approach provides SEE countries with
guidelines on developing national lists of projects for compliance with the key
investment-heavy directives.
Drawing up and efficiently managing the project lists in order to obtain financing
for priority projects is a complex process requiring high levels of skill and
expertise among the national authorities. The exercise of developing a regional
list of environmental priority projects was seen as an important step towards starting
this process. The PEIP lists of priority environmental infrastructure investment
projects are the response of SEE countries to the need to comply with the
EU key investment-heavy directives. The role of the PEIP project lists is also to
stimulate the process of implementing more infrastructure projects in the region.
One practical result of the project lists is that priority project concepts can be
shown to the donor community; on the other hand, the process launched and implemented
by the PEIP, through the active participation of the SEE stakeholders,
allowed for the transfer of expertise on developing and managing lists of projects
for compliance.
Officials from SEE ministries of environment were actively involved in all stages
of developing the methodology and are responsible for the updating of the lists, in
cooperation with the project team. The active involvement of SEE officials, and
their approval of the lists, are indicative of their commitment to the process.
The lists contain project concepts that:
• have a regional impact on the environment in SEE;
• are directly linked to the implementation of the EU environmental acquis; and
• are sufficiently mature (there is adequate information available about the project)
to be assessed for bankability and/or grant assistance.
The total costs of projects should be regarded with a certain degree of caution,
as there is no unified method for calculating investment costs in the region.
S T R AT E G I C M O V E S 189