EU acession – Case Croatia Palic, September 24th to 26th 2013 EU acession – Case Croatia Jagoda Munić, Zelena Akcija/FoE Croatia Npr: Climate, transport and energy policy analysis Advocacy NGOs networks for sustainable use of energy and natural resources in the Western Balkans and Turkey – ETNAR IPA-CSF-2012/306-573

Long accession period focused on law harmonization the laws have been changed frequently and then changed again in the process of the fast procedure in the Parliament poor quality of legislation, perhaps even badly translated or interpreted, which induced the further changes poor implementation of the legislation Croatian accession process for EU membership was extensively long, about a decade, in which legislation has been harmonized with EU legislation. This means that we had quite a time to adjust to changes, and one of the biggest changes in terms of new legislation and its implementation had to be done in the field of environment. During this decade the main effort has been put into legislation change, but perhaps not in the best manner. For instance, it would be better if EU legislation has been transposed, and then laws have been adopted in a slow pace with more public consultation. On contrary, the laws have been changed frequently and then changed again in the process of the fast procedure in the Parliament. The fast procedure is procedure for exceptional cases, when a new act has to be done urgently. However, during the accession process it has been applied to all Acts with an EU tag, meaning that the legislation that has been labeled as EU harmonization legislation has had only one reading in the Parliament. . For example, the Waste Act has been changed in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2009, and the new law is drafted and adopted by the Croatian government on 26th June 2013, while Water Act has been changed in 2009, twice in 2011 and in 2013. Each time these acts have been changed it is said the reason is because they have not been harmonized with EU legislation. poor implementation of the legislation

Impact on Croatian env. legislation the EU environmental legislation was more elaborated and stricter that Croatian legislation in the most of the cases EU was used as an excuse to water down the legislation that has been successfully applied in the case of ordnance on environmental impact assessment process. Using the EIA directive provisions, some developments that previously needed EIA were kicked of the list, in spite of the fact that the EIA directive proscribed the minimum that needs to be assessed.  

Screeening In 2006 – multilateral and bilateral screening in Brussels Zeleni forum managed to get 3 CSO reporesentatives in the screening team of the Chapter 27 They had only observer status and attended the bilateral screening

Screening document

Benchmarks Opening and closing benchmarks were new instruments designed by the EU that were used for the first time during Croatia's accession negotiations, as a tool to emphasize the most important reforms on the path to the full alignment with the acquis. For the Environment there was one opening benchmark, from April 3, 2007, stating

Opening benchmark Croatia should present to the Commission a comprehensive plan for putting in place the necessary administrative capacity and required financial resources to implement the environment acquis with targets and deadlines. This plan should be coherent with the process to complete the legislative alignment and the start of implementation.

Governmental response As a result, in February 2008, the Croatian Government had adopted this document titled “Plan for Setting up Necessary Administrative Capacities at National, Regional and Local Level and Required Financial Resources for Implementing the Acquis.”, very elaborated document that proved the capacity of Croatian administration to implement environmental legislation.

The Closing benchmarks Croatia adopts legislation aimed at transposing the acquis in the field of water quality, notably the new Water Act and the new Water Management Financing Act and makes further significant progress in legislative alignment in this sector by adopting implementing legislation.  Croatia adopts legislation aimed at transposing the acquis in the field of industrial pollution control and risk management and ensures that definitions, notably related to installations, are aligned with the acquis.  

The Closing benchmarks Croatia continues its alignment with the acquis in the remaining sectors of this chapter and demonstrates that it will be fully prepared to ensure the implementation and enforcement of the EU requirements at the date of accession. Croatia continues capacity building of the administrative bodies at all levels, including inspection services, in line with the Action Plan, further improves coordination of work and demonstrates that all appropriate administrative structures will be in place in good time before accession to enable implementation and enforcement of the acquis in all sectors of this chapter.

Negotiation Content of legislation is not a topic for discussion, just the duration of the adjustment periods Closed to public We managed to get documents from Brussels from EEB, but not the Croatian government Nevertheless, the Government bragged about inclusive process

Contract and transition periods In the document Information on the Results of the EU Accession Negotiations with Croatia, Compiled by the Directorate General for Enlargement of the European Commission in November 2011, there is a report of these transition periods. Of course, they are defined in more detail in the Accession Treaty: Treaty concerning the accession of the Republic of Croatia. Here are exemptions from the full implementation of EU environmental acquis.   Horizontal legislation / climate change Croatia will join the EU Emission Trading System (EU ETS) not before 1 January 2013, when the third trading period of the EU ETS starts. Croatia will join the EU ETS for aviation activities as of 1 January 2014. Air Quality Croatia needs to set an exposure reduction target and an average exposure indicator for the air pollutant PM 2,5. The reference year is the second year after the end of the year of Croatia's accession. The average exposure indicator for that reference year shall be the average concentration of the year of accession and the first and the second year after accession. The exposure reduction target shall then be calculated in relation to the average exposure indicator in that reference year. Waste Management One transitional period has been granted until 1 January 2019 for Croatia to bring its landfills for waste in compliance with the acquis requirements. A second derogation was granted until 1 January 2021, with intermediate deadlines of 1 January 2014 and 2017 in order to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste going into landfills. Water Quality Croatia has a transitional period until 1 January 2024, with intermediate deadlines with intermediate targets of 1 January 2019 and 1 January 2021, to bring its treatment systems in line with the acquis requirements as regards urban waste water. A second derogation until 1 January 2019 was granted during which Croatia will have to reach certain parameters for drinking water. Industrial Pollution and Risk Management For integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC), where installations have to reduce their emissions of pollutants: the latest date to bring about compliance, with intermediate deadlines, is 1 January 2018. A total of 67 installations is concerned. Eleven large combustion plants have been granted a derogation to reduce their emissions until 1 January 2018. Emissions of volatile organic compounds need to be reduced for a specified list of installations until 1 January 2016, with several intermediate deadlines. Also, the obligation for the operator to demonstrate to that the best available techniques are being used shall for coating processes in shipbuilding with regard to certain installations in Croatia apply only as from 1 January 2016. The lists of installations for which these derogations hold are put into the treaty. Chemicals For the regulation on registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals (REACH), Croatia will have a maximum of six months upon accession to adapt to the registration obligation for non phase-in substances and to the deadlines for pre-registration of phase-in substances, 12 months upon accession for the registration of pre-registered phase-in substances and at least 6 months upon accession for sending applications for authorisations of substances on the autorisation list. In short, the granted transition period should be enough to implement the requirements of the legislation, but this will require a lot of effort and investments. The question is would we be able to meet the deadlines and if not what would happen. For instance, there is possibility that we will have to pay fines for not meeting the deadlines. This is true for the case of waste.

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