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

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I N T R O D U C T I O N
S T R AT E G I C M O V E S
• Lessons learned from the REC’s work under the PEIP, including materials from
analytical country reports, national workshops and regional meetings.
• Lessons learned from the REC’s work on other key projects related to environmental
investments and environmental institutions.
Structure of the publication
• In Chapter 1, the role played by the PEIP in the field of environmental infrastructure
investments in SEE is described. During the past eight years, the PEIP
has provided a framework for numerous activities in the region, and as such defines
the structure of this publication.
• The status of environmental infrastructure has a direct bearing on the size of the
investment challenge. The analysis of this area in Chapter 2 indicates how far
countries are from full implementation of respective directives.
• The authors have identified key constraints and challenges to investments and
have linked them with potential responses in Chapter 3. Challenges are divided
between national and municipal, as they are quite different in nature. Political,
economic, financial, legal, institutional, planning and project preparation challenges
are also discussed.
• In Chapter 4, the economic situation is analysed in order to define the wider
framework for environmental investments. The state of the economy and of
the national budget have a direct implication for all investments, including environmental
infrastructure investments. Some of the main obstacles and benefits
in the countries’ progress towards EU integration are outlined and the status
of each country with respect to EU accession is presented. Investment-heavy
directives are explicitly mentioned as they represent the legal basis and the main
pressure for investments in environmental infrastructure. National environmental
investment needs are presented in order to obtain an idea of the scope
of the problem and to be able to compare the needs against the available funding
from different sources.
• The legal and strategic framework of the SEE countries is explored in Chapter 5
in order to gauge the speed of transposition and the completeness of the legal
framework. This is an indication of the political will in the country as well as of
the legal pressure to undertake reforms. Enforcement is a critical aspect that has
very often been a stumbling block in countries that have made excellent progress
in transposition. The legal pressure to carry out environmental infrastructure investments
will be effective only if there is a high level of compliance through a
robust enforcement system. National institutions are of key importance in carrying
out environmental investments. An analysis of such institutions illustrates the
extent to which one of the main bottlenecks to investments has been removed.
• The status of utilities and of utility reforms is directly correlated to their readiness
to attract investments in water and waste. This is even more important in
times of economic crisis, as explained in Chapter 6.