Second Environmental Performance Review of Albania

Chapter 2: Compliance and enforcement mechanisms31Wastewater effluent norms were approved by the2005 DCM on Allowed Norms for WastewaterEffluent before Discharge into Environment, No 177and the 2005 DCM on Allowed Norms of LiquidReleases and the Zoning Criteria of Receiving WaterEnvironments. At the moment the process ofelaboration and adoption of water standards isongoing. There are draft decisions on urbanwastewater treatment, priority substances in waterand on standards of water quality.Environmental quality standards are not clearlydetermined and major pollutants are not detected.2.7 Conclusions and recommendationsAlthough the inspectors follow the description of thedifferent types of inspections in the EnvironmentalInspectors’ Manual, the preparation of checklistswould make site inspections more efficient.Despite bilateral agreements and joint instructionswere signed between EI and other control bodies (theState Police, the Construction Inspectorate, the PlantProtection Inspectorate, the General Directorate ofTaxation, the State Sanitary Inspectorate and theState Labor Inspectorate), inter-institutionalcoordination is lacking or remains at a very poorlevel.The annual reports or data on the undertakeninspections are not uploaded to Internet and are noteasily available to the public.Recommendation 2.1:The Ministry of Environment, Forests and WaterAdministration and other relevant competentauthorities should:(a) Prepare and adopt checklists for inspectionand unified reporting forms;(b) Improve cooperation between theenvironmental inspection bodies and othercontrol bodies;(c) Develop an informal network on informationexchange and coordination betweenenvironmental inspectors at central and locallevels, and other control bodies;(d) Define criteria for public access to inspectionreports.New legislation is either under preparation or in forcebut practical implementation is still very weak andinconsequential. There are insufficient financial andtechnical resources to meet the legal requirements.Administrative capacity is insufficient.The conflict of interest remains in the mandate of theinspectors – on the one hand , they issue permits andon the other, they control their practical application.MoEFWA provides training to its staff mainlythrough foreign institutions and organizationsoperating both within and outside Albania. Budgetfunds allocated for training purposes are quitelimited.Recommendation 2.2:(a) The Government should strengthen theadministrative capacity of the EnvironmentalInspectorate and the regional environmentagencies within the Ministry of Environment,Forests and Water Administration, inrelation to improving enforcement of thelegislation.(b) The Ministry of Environment, Forests andWater Administration should:(i) Implement the separation of thepermitting and inspection functions;(ii) Provide appropriate staff trainingcourses for inspectors.The 2011 Law on Environmental Permittingtransposed the requirements of Directive 96/61/ECon Integrated Pollution Prevention Control. The draftlaw on SEA transposed EU Directive 2001/42/EC onthe assessment of the effects of certain plans andprogrammes on the environment. However, theeffective implementation of these two laws is notfeasible without developing secondary legislation.The legislation on environmental audit does not existin Albania and there is no list of industrialinstallations and polluters in the country.There are no permit conditions with threshold limitvalues for pollutants. Permits do not regulateemissions to air, water and soil.Recommendation 2.3:The Ministry of Environment, Forests and WaterAdministration should:(a) Develop secondary legislation for each of thefollowing instruments: Environmental ImpactAssessment, Strategic EnvironmentalAssessment, Integrated Pollution Preventionand Control and environmental audit, andensure public access to these procedures;(b) Prepare a list containing all existingindustrial installations subject to IPPC andestablish a pollutant release and transferregister (PRTR);(c) Include threshold limit values for pollutantsin environmental permits.