Central and Eastern Europe: Implementation of EIA and SEA at Transboundary Level

1. Central and Eastern Europe: Implementation of EIA and SEA at TransboundaryLevel Environmental Impact Assessment and Strategic Environmental Assessment Dushanbe, Tajikistan 17- 18 October, 2013 Dipl. Eng. Nina Stoyanova, International Expert wecoop-project.org

2. Transboundary EIA/SEA • For projects/plans and programmes likely to have significant effects on the environment in another State • Can be requested by the State likely to be significantly affected • Concerned parties must be informed • Environmental authorities and public concerned in the affected State can express opinions. • Reasonable time-frame for providing relevant information • Information on the final decision/statement - may be challenged at courts • Post project analyses/monitoring of the proposed measure

4. Different approaches in the implementation • General EIA approach – Party of origin/Affected party • Case study: The Rosia Montana Project /Romania – Hungary/ • Separate EIA procedures on national level – linear infrastructure projects/large scale projects (roads, pipelines) • Case study: “Nabucco gas pipeline” /Turkey – Bulgaria- Romania/ • Joint EIA procedure • Case study: “Second Bridge over the Danube river between Vidin (BG) and Calafat (RO)” /Bulgaria – Romania/ • Combined approach for EIA • Transboudary SEA • Case study: “VoivodshipSpatial Development Plan for Lubuskie” /Poland – Germany/ • Case study: “Port of Capodistria – Spatial Plan”/Slovenia-Italy/

5. The Rosia Montana Project

6. The Rosia Montana Project • Thetransboundary EIA procedureforRosiaMontanaminingproject,whereRomaniaisapartyof origin, startedin 2004, stoppedin 2007 due to challenging of anadministrativeactincourt. A newadministrativeacthasbeenobtainedandsubmittedbythedeveloperin 2010. • Subject of the project - continuation and extension of activities regarding mining exploration of natural resources of gold and silver in the region of Rosia Montana commune, including open-pit mining, leaching and adsorption, electro-winning and smelting of the gold and silver into ingots. • Preliminary phase - In accordance with legal provisions, the Developer /Romanian-Canadian company/ has submitted in 2002, the project presentation to the Romanian authorities /not only environmental/ and started consultations with general public. • Transboundary issue- In August 2002, the Hungarian Ministry for Environment responded to a request by a group of 20 Hungarian NGOs to activate the Espoo Convention in connection with the proposed open cast gold mine in Rosia Montana. The response mentioned that the Hungarian ministry has started the procedures of the Convention by issuing a formal request for information.

7. The Rosia Montana Project

8. The Rosia Montana Project • The Hungarian concerns were: The mine – planned to be the biggest in Europe – would require the partial destruction of a village and the resettlement of some 2000 persons, and would create a long-lasting toxic legacy of 250 million tones of tailings sludge containing heavy metals and cyanide compounds, confined in a 600-hectare lake behind a 180-meter tall dam. The mining activities could pose similar threats to those caused by the dam failure at the Baia Mare tailings reprocessing facility from January 2000 which produced a spill of 100.000 cubic metres of tailings sludge in the Tisa and Danube. • It was argued that three types of activities covered by the Espoo convention apply to this situation: large dams and reservoirs; waste-disposal installations for the incineration, chemical treatment or landfill of toxic and hazardous waste; major mining, on-site extraction and processing of metal ores or coal.

9. The Rosia Montana Project • 2004:The Developer submits an application for EIA to the environmental authorities. • 2006:The Developer submits the EIA Report, drafted by a team of Romanian and foreign experts, to the Ministry of Environment. 16 public consultations (14 in Romania and 2 in Hungary) are held, 5,600 questions were submitted to the Ministry of Environment. • 2007: The Developer submits the answers to the 5,600 questions to the Ministry of Environment, a document totaling 12,600 pages and representing an Annex to the EIA Report, the final document having more than 17,000 pages. The review of the EIA Report begins. The Developer begins the construction of the new neighborhood /named Recea/ for the families within the project development area who chose to move to the city. September 2007: The Ministry of Environment suspends the review of the EIA Report.

10. The Rosia Montana Project May 2009: Inauguration of Recea neighborhood in Alba Iulia; 125 local families moved to their new homes in Alba Iulia.

11. The Rosia Montana Project • September 2009: RoşiaMontană commune is officially included in the Guinness Book of Records, as the first locality in the world with the largest number of people who simultaneously looked for gold with a buddle. The record, certified by the famous organization Guinness World Records, was registered on Miners’ Day, August 30th, 2009. The main organizer of the event was the Mayoralty of RoşiaMontană, while RMGC provided logistics and financial support. • September 2010: The Ministry of Environment reconsiders the evaluation procedure of the Environmental Impact Assessment Study on Rosia Montana Project. Not decided yet.

12. Nabuccogas pipeline Pipeline system for transportation of gas from various sources in the Caspian region and the Middle East to Central Europe

13. Nabucco gas pipeline • Party of Origin and Affected Party – Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania • Exchange of Notifications between the parties • Express of interest for participation – Turkey is not willing to participate in the Bulgarian EIA procedure. Romania expressed it’s willingness to participate. • Consultations between Bulgaria and Romania at the scoping phase • Elaboration of the Environmental Impact Study • Evaluation of the Environmental Impact Study • Public access to the Environmental Impact Study – one month in both countries and public debates • Issuing of the EIA decision from the Bulgarian MOEW

14. Second Bridge over the Danube river between Vidin (BG) and Calafat (RO)

15. Second Bridge over the Danube river • Concerned countries - Bulgaria and Romania • Ratification of the Convention: • Bulgaria - March 1995 • Romania - March 2001 • Party of Origin <=> Affected Party • Activity - bridge as a part of the road and long distance railway • priority project included in the Quick Start package of the projects in the Stability Pact for international assistance • Formal developer - Bulgarian Ministry of Transport and Communications

16. Second Bridge over the Danube river • Establishment of the Joint Committee chaired by the Ministers of Transport of Bulgaria and Romania Differences between the national EIA systems in Bulgaria and Romania: • Preliminary EIA on the feasibility study - BG • Final EIA on the detailed design – RO • Environmental permits for the bridge – in both countries • Establishment of Joint Working Group - responsible for the environmental aspects which could be raised by the development of the project • No formal notification procedure

17. Voivodship Spatial Development Plan for Lubuskie

18. Voivodship Spatial Development Plan for Lubuskie • Poland and Germany have a long-lasting bilateral cooperation on transboundary EIA and SEA. Both Parties cooperate on the basis of bilateral Polish-German Agreement on EIA, signed in 2006 and entered into force in 2007. • The Marshal (in charge of preparing draft plan) found that the significant transboundary, including health, effects might occur on the German territory. Due to this fact notification was sent to Germany together with draft plan and its environmental report (translation into German). • Deadline for declaration whether or not Germany would like to participate was 30 days since date of receiving the notification with possibility to submit at the same time comments and suggestions regarding draft plan and environmental report.

19. Plan for Lubuskie • Public participation in Germany was organized on the same rules as in Poland (the equal rights and opportunities): • The German public was informed about draft plan and transboundary SEA by relevant German authorities through public notice and public display in Official Journal; • The time frame for submitting comments and suggestions by German public was at least 21-day period as Polish law stipulates (time for public access and formulate comments). Therefore, German authorities which were in charge of organizing the German public participation, gave its own public opportunity to be acquainted with necessary documentation and make comments within period of 21 days; • The German public could send the comments and suggestions directly to the Marshal of VoivodshipLubuskie or indirectly through the German relevant authority;

20. Plan for Lubuskie • In the course of public participation the Marshal received 1099 comments from German public. Number of public comments from Germany faced Marshal with a lot of practical problems: - a lack of human resources to deal with all submitted comments; • translations caused difficulties because due to the Procurement Law the Marshal had limited opportunities to choose the most suitable translator, so that the quality of the translations was not so satisfied; • what is more the German side emphasized that the translation caused some misunderstandings because of not so high accuracy of used terminology. • The information on the manner in which the comments and suggestions submitted by the German public has been taken into account and to what extent it has been used was included in written summary as an enclosure to the adopted plan.

21. Port of Capodistria – Spatial Plan

22. Port of Capodistria – Spatial Plan • 2009 - Notification of R. Slovenia to R. Italy. Slovenia ensure, that SEA is carrying out for transport spatial plan, which follows within Annex I projects of the EIA Directive: trading port which permit the passage of vessels of over 1.350 metric tons. • Positive answer from Italy. Slovenia send documentation, abstract in Italian language and letter with technical procedural proposal /information regarding the decission, period of public consultation, date of expected comments, proposal to present SEA and plan,etc./. Comments from Italy received. • Screening - Using Annex II Criteria of the SEA Directive for determining the likely significant environmental and health effects. • Scoping - Determination of the relevant information: noise, health, water, landscape, nature, etc. • Preparation of the draft plan, alternatives • Consultation with environment, health, culture conservation and nature conservation authorities. • Preparation of the Environmental report, including the information on its possible transboundary environmental effects;

23. Port of Capodistria – Spatial Plan • Transboundary consultation; • Public consultation: publictender for ideas, opinions of the public; • SEA decision and adoption of the Plan

24. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION! Dipl. Eng. Nina Stoyanova, International Expert, Bulgaria Tel: + 359 899 914 155 E-mail: ecostim@gmail.com