Xenophon Paper 2 pdf - ICBSS

Environment: Moldova has joined the Investment Facility Project for the Black Sea
(Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia), financed with 5 million euros by the European
Commission (DABLAS). 16 The particular aim of the investment facility is to develop prefeasibility
studies for water projects in Black Sea countries in cooperation with major
international financial institutions (IFIs). The operational governing body of DABLAS is
a representative Task Force seeking to bring cohesion to the financing process by
identifying priority objectives common to the region as a whole by encouraging a more
strategic focus on the use of available financing and by ensuring coordination between
all financial instruments operating in the region. Although it appears to be sensitive
towards the main environmental issues highlighted in the Action Plan for the Rehabilitation
and Protection of the Black Sea Area (31 October 1996), Moldova did not expand its
involvement in the implementation stage due to the fact that it did not ratify the Bucharest
Convention. 17
Officials from the Ministry of Environment of Moldova attended regional workshops, but
seemed unconvinced that they could make their participation more effective. There are
more than forty environmental NGOs in Moldova involved in environmental policies such
as the protection of biodiversity or education and research. Although, Moldova has two
main rivers which drain into the Black Sea (Prut and Dniester) 18 , it was not included in
the Transboundary River Basin Management Project (TRBMP). Moldova joined however
the most-recent Danube and Black Sea Countries Water Protection Declaration on 23
February 2007, which allows the Danube countries to meet the requirements of the
legally binding EU Water Framework Directive, requiring a better coordination of their
efforts and important resources from the EU to reduce nutrient pollution.
Economic cooperation and trade: Moldova’s economic well-being depends entirely on
regional and international trade. A small market share and the lack of strategic energy
resources challenge Moldova which relies heavily on imports, and thus strives to connect
16 DABLAS (Danube Black Sea Task Force was set up by Environment Ministers of the Danube – the Black
Sea Region in November 2001 with the aim to provide a platform for cooperation for the protection of the Danube
and the Black Sea.
17 Determined to confront the problems related to over-fertilisation and industrial pollution, leading to excessive
growth of algae and oxygen depletion, six Black Sea countries signed in April 1992 the Convention for the
Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution, in Bucharest. The Convention was followed in 1993 by the adoption
of the Black Sea Environmental Programme, as a catalogue of practical actions, and in 1996, a Strategic Action
Plan for the Protection and Rehabilitation of the Black Sea. The Bucharest Convention, includes a general
framework of agreement and three specific protocols: on the control of land-based sources of pollution, on the
dumping of waste and on joint action in the case of accidents, such as oil spills.
18 The Dniester river is one of the largest rivers that supplies the Black Sea with freshwater, and along with Don,
Danube and Dnieper, these drain 70% of the freshwater inputs in the sea.
94 UNFOLDING THE BLACK SEA ECONOMIC COOPERATION VIEWS FROM THE REGION