Bridging the Gaps: Enhancing MEA Implementation in the Balkans

1st Project Meeting
Vienna, Austria 26-27 June 2006

The rapid increase in MEAs addressing a multitude of environmental concerns and the wide range of decisions taken by their governance bodies has resulted in widespread concern that MEAs are neither complied with nor enforced or inadequately implemented and that implementation efforts at both national and international levels are insufficiently coordinated.

The Project “Bridging the Gaps: Enhancing MEA Implementation in the Balkans” is supported and funded by the Government of Austria. It is a unique project aimed at building and improving national capacities for the development and implementation of legislation for an enhanced and more effective national implementation of key global and regional MEAs, as well as integrating the EU environmental acquis – and streamlining reporting and information management systems in the Balkan region.

The Project will build and significantly strengthen the national capacities for an enhanced and more effective implementation of key global and regional MEAs, as well as integrating the EU environmental acquis by utilizing the synergies of MEAs and addressing their implementation based on two clusters or thematic areas of MEAs: Chemicals/Waste and Biodiversity. It will also have as its aim the integration of MEA requirements and other related domestic priorities into the general developmental and environmental management capabilities and approaches of the target countries, rather than seeking merely to achieve implementation of the MEAs in isolation from the national development plans and environmental management efforts of the countries; as well as to analyze how sub-regional and transboundary cooperation can help to implement MEAs in the region, and support EU compatible policies across EU borders.

The regional Meeting on 26 – 27 June in Vienna concludes and marks the end of the 1st phase of the Project. It will be used to analyze the first findings/results with eminent national experts and officials – and chart the way forward and provide concrete recommendations for the 2nd phase of the Project.  It is intended that phase 2 will then follow-up and implement these findings, results and recommendations. The conclusion of the 2nd phase of the Project will coincide with the sixth Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe” in Belgrade, October 2007, where the final results and outcomes of the Project will be delivered and presented.