Bezperspektivnost dopravnej politiky
                        v krajinach Europskej unie

                                April 2000

                Tema: verejna versus osobna cestna doprava
                     vo vztahu k ekonomickemu rozvoju

        Clanok (vid. nizsie) poskytol Rich Douthwaite , autor
        dvoch svetoznamych publikacii o alternativnej ekonomike a
        zlyhaniach sucasneho systemu, ktory bol v lete 1999 na
        Slovensku - na serii prednasok.

        Hovori sa tam o ISPA (zahranicne financne zdroje z
        Europskej unie) a predvstupovych nastrojoch a ich mrhani
        penazi na dialnice!

                   Juraj Zamkovsky, Email : zamkovsky@changenet.sk

          EU Candidate Countries Want to Avoid Transport Mistakes

                         By Alexandru R. Savulescu

        BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 20, 2000 (ENS) - The European
        Union must not impose its own environmental mistakes in
        transport policy on Central and Eastern European
        countries, said delegates to the Transport and European
        Union Enlargement Conference, held in Brussels March 16
        and 17.

        The European Union is working towards including 12 more
        countries within the next few years. Harmonizing their
        environmental laws and standards with those of the current
        15 members is part of the enlargement process.

        In March 1998, accession negotiations were started with
        six applicant countries: Cyprus, the Czech Republic,
        Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. In December 1999,
        negotiations were approved for the second group: Bulgaria,
        Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, and the Slovak
        Republic.

        "Sustainable transport is not possible if actual trends
        are not reversed," Axel Friedrich, of the German
        Environmental Federal Agency, told delegates at the
        opening of the conference.

        Most Central and Eastern European countries are
        experiencing rapid increase in levels of road traffic,
        according to Malcolm Fergusson, of the London based
        Institute for European Environmental Policy.

        While in absolute terms the level of road traffic in
        Central and Eastern Europe remains much lower than that of
        the European Union (EU), car ownership levels in Poland,
        Hungary and the Czech Republic are speedily approaching
        those of the EU countries.

        In contrast to road, rail use is stagnant or in decline in
        many Central and Eastern European countries, said
        Fergusson.

        Further high levels of growth in road transport are likely
        to lead to a doubling or tripling of emissions and very
        high abatement costs for applicant countries, according to
        the European Environment Agency.

        The accession process is essentially a process of
        candidate countries conforming to European Union laws and
        structures, known as acquis communautaire.

        Fergusson believes there is a danger that the importance
        attached to the acquis will result in the neglect of other
        essential measures, such as supporting public transport
        and creating urban environments that encourage walking and
        cycling.

        Ian Clark, of the Environment Directorate of the European
        Commission, stresses that "implementing the acquis on
        transport will not automatically make CEE transport more
        sustainable," even if environmental concerns are now
        considered to be as important as social and economic
        factors in the development of transport policy.

        But using the required EU environmental impact assessment
        methods provides a framework in which environmental
        impacts can be weighted against other considerations,
        Clark says.

        "This does not ensure that environmental damage is
        avoided," says Fergusson. He also adds that the new
        Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession
        (ISPA) established by the European Union for fostering
        economic development in the CEE countries, has little in
        the way of "environmental safeguards."

        Half of the 7.3 billion euro in ISPA funds provided over
        the period from 2000 to 2006 will be used for transport.
        These funds will likely be focused on large infrastructure
        projects, mainly new highways, with great environmental
        impact, Fergusson believes. In addition to ISPA, the
        principal institutional sources of funding for the CEE are
        the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for
        Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank, and the
        PHARE program of the European Union.

        Their interest is oriented towards large scale
        infrastructure projects, as is the interest of governments
        of the CEE countries themselves. This focus, says
        Fergusson, is "starving out potentially more productive
        and less damaging small scale local investments as public
        transport services, repairs and maintenance, facilities
        for walking and cycling."

        c Environment News Service (ENS) 2000. All Rights
        Reserved.

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                        Priatelia Zeme - Slovensko