|
This conference precedes the World Conference on Sustainable Development ("Rio + 10"), to be held in April and September 2002 in Johannesburg.
The goal of the Visegrad conference is:
- To evaluate the implementation of Agenda 21 - the main document adopted at the United Nations Conference on Enviroroment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 in the framework of Visegrad region for the next decade.
- To develop wider collaboration and communication in CEE region.
- To adopt common Prague initiative/declaration.
Involvement of public in decision-making processes, importance of this involvement for sustainable development
Representative democracy, which works only on the basis of the competition of political parties, tends to become (and this often happens) a mere game of power for the professionalised (elected) politically active stratum and state and local administration appointed by them.
Both the politically active professionalised stratum and state and local administration deliberately or unconsciously focus on the game of power, separated from the needs and interests of the public, unless there is an independent, active and self-confident basis of committed citizens.
This commitment comes in various forms. One of them is based on the options available under the laws. Years of experience with involvement in proceedings, environmental impact assessment processes of buildings or other projects clearly show, that the involvement of civic associations influenced the quality of state and local administration decision-making regarding environmental issues. For these institutions, the involvement of the public in proceedings is a new and often unpleasant fact. The situation when authorities were not "disturbed" by the demands of the public is still often with us. The public often only passively accepted, and often still accepts, issued decisions. Sometimes even local people join the proceedings only on the basis of the active involvement of civic associations. And so a gradual development of the elements of direct democracy on a regional scale occurs.
It is a sad fact that the state administration, to be specific, e.g. governing bodies of district authorities have approved technocratic and environmentally damaging solutions. Many officials in the state environmental protection agency have gradually given up on these issues, because they were not able to resist the pressure from the leadership of these authorities. As for respecting the public interest, the situation is even worse in building authorities. Apart from a few bright exceptions it is common that environment-protecting laws are violated. Repeatedly the authorities for example get round the obligation to seek the expert opinion of the environmental protection body on building location in the landscape or on interventions in significant landscape elements. As the last to approve the issuing planning licenses, some building authorities show signs of corruption. A phenomenon of mutual interconnection between authorities, business lobbies and political interests appears. Repeated attempts to limit the involvement of the public on decision-making processes are connected to this.
The current complicated situation in decision-making about environmental issues can be well characterized by the example of the so-called EIA process at Temelín nuclear power plant. Up to 1994, the standpoint of competent authorities, the Ministry of Environment in the first place but also the District Authorities in ?eské Bud?jovice, was clear - at Temelín NPP no environmental impact assessment with the involvement of the public would have to be carried out. The South Bohemian Mothers Association managed, on the basis of legal steps, to gain that a Supreme Court order demanding discussion about a construction modification on Temelín NPP within the EIA process and found legitimate a similar procedure with other modifications at Temelín NPP as well. In 2001 a public assessment of 78 modifications at Temelín NPP was carried out.
At the present time a reform of state control is in progress that is controversial from the perspective of environmental protection and involvement of the public in decision-making processes. Instead of district authorities, accredited authorities of a so-called third type will be established that will take over some of the powers of district authorities and other powers will be taken over by regional authorities. In accredited authorities, there will be around two hundred of them, the environmental protection department will probably be often merged with other departments due to poor implementation of the reform. We can expect a tendency towards merging with building authorities or territorial planning or monument preservation departments. This is a dangerous situation, which, according to our experience hitherto - e.g. merging of the transport and environmental protection departments in Jind?ich?v Hradec -, is always at the expense of quality of decision-making in environmental protection issues.
In some cases, thanks to the active involvement of the public, it was possible to stop problematic projects or at least to moderate their negative environmental impact. Even in cases, in which civic associations are not successful in their effort, the time and energy expended is not wasted, because the meaning of this work is above all educational. Authorities get used to the fact, that the public has the right to enter all these proceedings as a full-fledged participant and that their decision-making will be under public supervision. On the basis of many years of experience we can state that compared to the beginning of the 1990's there is an increase in the number of local initiatives, which actively oppose projects that worsen the environment. If the interest of NGOs and civic initiatives about the functioning of governing bodies continues and grows stronger, in time it will probably lead to a gradual cultivation of the professional ethics of civil servants and to a greater respect for laws, civil rights and thus to more efficient environment protection. This represents a great contribution to both sustainable development and the development of democracy. Democracy is, that is to say, the more stable the more common people i.e. the general public are identified with it.
Dana Kuchtová, 3-3-2002
|
