RENA Newsletter 6_July.pdf - Renanetwork.org

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RISPRENA WG 1 RISPWorking Group 1 – Regional Workshop on Protection of the Environmentthrough Environmental LawEnvironmental crime can be broadly defined as illegal acts which directly harm theenvironment. They include: illegal trade in wildlife; smuggling of ozone-depletingsubstances (ODS); illicit trade in hazardous waste; illegal, unregulated, andunreported fishing; and illegal logging and the associated trade in stolen timber.Perceived as ‘victimless’ and low on the priority list, such crimes often fail toprompt the required response from governments and the enforcement community.Environmental crimes deprives forest communities of vital livelihoods, causesecological problems like flooding, and is a major contributor to climate change –up to one-fifth of greenhouse gas emissions stem from deforestation. Illicit tradein ODS like the refrigerant chemicals chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), contributes toa thinning ozone layer, which causes human health problems like skin cancer andcataracts.Environmental protection is one of the prior areas of the European Union’s (EU)policy. EU authorities accent that environmental crime is a serious and growinginternational problem that has devastating effects on environment and humanhealth and that undermines the successful implementation of the EU environmentalpolicy; thus, it must be ensured that such offences are subject to effective sanctions,including, in serious cases, criminal sanctions.Directive 2008/99/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Protectionof Environment through Criminal Law was adopted on 19 November 2008 and hasto be applied by the Member States as from 26 December 2010. Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing anInfrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) enteredinto force on the 15th May 2007, with full implementation required by 2019.RENA Newsletter No 6 - July 20123
ProgressMonitoring 2012Working Group 1 – Regional Workshop on EU Accession NegotiationProcess – “How to write position papers and instructions for EUmeetings”The workshop on EU Accession Negotiation Process, was developed taking intoconsideration the RENA beneficiary countries needs, as expressed at the 1stWorkshop on EU Accession Negotiation Process, organized in Brussels on 23-24November, 2011.The 1st workshop on EU Accession Negotiation Process-Chapter 27” providedlectures on the EU institutional structure for negotiations such as the role of theCouncil, Conference on accession to the EU, Enlargement Working Group anddocuments, which are considered during the process. The training also enabledexchange of experience with EU NMS on national mechanism for preparing thenegotiations institutional aspects, and national coordination obstacles in theprocess.The 2nd workshop has been designed to cover practical aspects of EU negotiationon Chapter 27, such as discussions on what to be included in the position papers,providing internal instructions to meetings with EU. The workshop will enable theparticipants to discuss institutional changes and financial measures needed to beundertaken to enable full implementation of the EU environmental acquis, as wellas to discuss preparing position papers based on available documents such aslatest Progress Monitoring Reports, Tables of Concordances and ImplementationQuestionnaires. The workshop was held in Skopje, fYR of Macedonia in the period05-07 June 2012.The practical exercises presented at the workshop, has taken the approach ofcreating national groups which had to take into account national situations regardingtransposition and implementation of the environmental acquis. Participants workedin national groups using country specific information (information provided in theProgress Monitoring exercise on transposition and implementation, any othermaterial such as ToCs and IQs which provides background for evaluation of situationin the country). For practical exercise the participants identified the directives thatrequire transitional period and work on structuring the position writing process.The lectures has been provided by the selected team of experts and former negotiatorsfrom the new Member States (Romania and Lithuania) and representatives of theMinistry of Environmental Protection, Physical Planning and Construction fromCroatia who recently closed their negotiation process.The main objectives of the workshop were to to train the participants in writinginstructions to EU meeting and position papers based on concrete EU Directives forindividual area of the CH - 27 Environment and to strengthen their preparedness foraccession negotiations on CH 27.Working Group 1 – Progress Monitoring 2012The progress monitoring of the transposition and implementation of the EUenvironment and climate acquis has been continued in 2012, as part of the Activity1.5 of RENA Working Group 1, coordinated by RENA Key Expert 2, Mr. MihailDimovski. The reports covered the reporting period May 2011 – March 2012.The methodology of the project was similar to the one used in the previous years.However, as decided at the Annual meeting of RENA WG 1 – Strategic Planning andInvestments (held in Brussels, on 25 November 2011), RENA team prepared slightlyrevised scoring system for the draft legislation in order to provide a clearer picture ofthe transposition efforts done in the countries.The European Commission attaches great importance to the Progress Monitoringproject, since it facilitates the countries’ own planning process and constitutes animportant basis of information to monitor the progress in each environmental sectorall through the accession process.The draft reports have been submitted to the EC DG Enlargement and the beneficiarycountries for final comments in June 2012.RENA Newsletter No 6 - July 20124
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RENA Newsletter 6_July.pdf - Renanetwork.org

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