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PRESS RELEASE |
IN THEORY – YES, IN PRACTICE - NOEU rejecting NGO participation in monitoring of its infrastructure investments in Estonia? Today, Friends of the Earth-Estonia sent a letter to Commissioners Wallström, Verheugen and Barnier, asking if the EU is no longer looking for meaningful public involvement in discussions over its development financing in Estonia via pre-accession funds. The request for clarification came out of the fact that the Delegation of the European Commission in Tallinn refused to include an NGO representative on the national ISPA* monitoring committee. "It is strange to see that while Estonian officials welcomed NGO participation in monitoring of EU-funded infrastructure projects in Estonia, the representative of the European Commission turned down the application," says Peep Mardiste, Director of Friends of the Earth-Estonia. "It sounds like the EU is afraid of independent evaluation of its projects. We are sure that without meaningful public participation, public support and a feeling of ownership toward EU-funded development projects, these projects can not be successful." Through ISPA the EU is providing up to 75% of the total cost of infrastructure projects in the environment and transport sectors. National-level monitoring committees are set up in all EU accession countries to allow a wide group of interested parties and experts to carry out permanent monitoring of EU-financed infrastructure projects throughout the project cycle. “The aim of pre-accession funds is two-fold,” says Magda Stoczkiewicz, Pre-accession project coordinator of CEE Bankwatch Network and Friends of the Earth Europe. “One is to help the candidate countries catch up with the EU, the other is to teach those countries to manage future structural funds. The Estonian lesson is, however, not very promising. For almost two years now we have been lobbying for a binding regulation on involving NGOs and civil society in the pre-accession funds. Without that we will have a situation like now, where Commissioner Wallström ensures us how important NGOs are in the process (in theory – yes) and another EU representative refuses NGO participation (in practice – no).”
For further information
and to obtain the letter contact: * ISPA - Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-accession Aid, EU support for candidate countries
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