Second Environmental Performance Review of Albania

The entire education system is subject to massive reform. Manuals and teaching materials for both studentsand teachers have been produced covering topics such as water, air and soil. As first steps toward transposingthe UNECE Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into the national context, Albaniadesignated a National Focal Point for implementation of ESD and adopted the National Strategy and ActionPlan for ESD. An inter-agency coordination mechanism for ESD was established. In contrast, adultenvironmental education remains practically non-existent.Implementation of international agreements and commitmentsSince the first EPR in 2002, the Government has integrated several multilateral environmental agreements(MEAs) into the national legal framework. Lately, the process of international environmental integration hasstrongly resonated with the political objective of European integration and, ultimately, EU membership.Furthermore, the Government put efforts into improving domestic institutions and extending its interaction withbilateral and multilateral partners. All this has resulted in a policy and legal framework that is broadly based onMEA requirements and international practice.The process of international cooperation on the environment and implementation of MEAs is nuanced. It ischaracterized by institutional fragmentation. Mechanisms to oversee the implementation of internationalcommitments are often limited. An Inter-ministerial Environment Committee was recently established byMoEFWA, at the level of deputy ministers, in an attempt to introduce a coordination platform to addressenvironmental concerns in other sectors. However, several such platforms previously created under the auspicesof the environmental authority did not last. To achieve better cooperation, authorities thus require substantialtraining, and guidance.There is a tendency to concentrate efforts on adopting new MEAs while implementation is still fallingbehind. No compliance assessment has ever been done for an MEA. Consequently, MoEFWA has only a verygeneral understanding of where it stands with the implementation of international commitments. It remainsquestionable whether the intensive process of joining new MEAs and transposing them into the nationallegislation corresponds to the national capacity to implement them, the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) ofnew legal requirements being limited to an assessment of the budgetary burden on the Government.Since the first EPR, the national environmental authority has undergone several reorganizations that havegenerally increased its capacity. However, during this process, several MEAs’ focal points were changed andtheir tasks reallocated to new people. Sometimes this resulted in a decrease in the capacity to manage thecountry’s international obligations on the environment.Economic instruments and expenditures for environmental protectionEconomic instruments have been strengthened in some areas since 2002, although environmentalmanagement is mainly based on command-and-control regulatory instruments. Permitting and inspectionsare used largely as income generators, although there are cases where their structure supports environmentalobjectives. Therefore, it is important to strengthen existing instruments, establish new ones or re-establishabolished ones.The “polluter pays” principle is recognized in legal terms; however, in practice there are notable problems inthe collection of economic instruments, and tariffs for some utilities are still below cost recovery levels. As aresult, the “polluter pays” principle is compromised and it is very difficult to achieve resource conservation andrational use of natural resources.The environmental sector is very much dependent on international financing and a very high proportion ofpublic environmental expenditure is coming from external sources. Several development partners – bilateraldonors in particular – are considering scaling down or phasing out their assistance in coming years due to thefinancial crisis. This will likely reduce the availability of donor aid, thus affecting the implementation ofenvironmental programmes.Despite a rather difficult macroeconomic environment, environmental expenditures and investments in keyareas have increased. However, resources for implementation of the country’s strategic goals on thexxv