Environment Ministry campaign informs Czechs of pros and cons of EU membership

Logo of the campaign for EU membership - ANO (YES)

The Czech Republic is one of ten front-runner candidates for EU membership hoping to take part in the elections to the European Parliament as a fully-fledged member in 2004. However, one of the areas where the candidate countries, including the Czech Republic, need to catch up on most is the environment. This involves including some three hundred EU environmental laws into national legislation as well as implementing and enforcing these laws, putting them into practice and making sure that they are respected.

While in the course of last year the Czech Environment Ministry mainly concentrated on catching up with EU standards, this year, one of its main priorities is to inform the average Czech citizen on the accession process and more importantly on the pros and cons of the Czech Republic's accession to the EU. The ministry plans to meet this goal with a campaign that was officially launched last Friday. I spoke to Jakub Kaspar, the Director of the Ministry's Department of Public Relations, to see what exactly this campaign is expected to entail:

Logo of the campaign for EU membership - ANO  (YES)
"We are speaking about a so-called intensive campaign before the referendum on the entry of the Czech Republic to the European Union. The campaign will present to the people in the Czech Republic what advantages and disadvantages will come with EU membership. That is the main topic of the campaign. One important point is that the accession of the Czech Republic to the EU will mainly be full of advantages, from the point of view of the environment."

Do you think that it's going to be difficult to inform the public? It is believed that Czech citizens aren't really interested in the environment...

"I wouldn't say that because opinion polls many years ago and today as well have been saying that the environment is one of five main topics discussed by the Czech Republic. So, I don't think that Czech citizens are not interested in the environment. They may not like popular or dramatic ecological activities but in my opinion, they are very interested in their own environment in their neighbourhoods and in their villages or towns."

So what exactly are you going to do to inform people?

"The first and most visible part of the campaign will be a series of nine topical leaflets. The first topic that we discussed today was the environment and enterprises or the industry. The second topic will be the protection against air pollution. Then it will be the protection of landscapes. The fourth topic looks at waste management, followed by packaging, after which come GMOs and chemicals. This is followed by the protection of water and the importance of the water supply - it's not just a European problem but a global problem, and then the topic of renewable materials. Finally, presented in June, will be the cohesion of money, of the structural funds of the European Union."

So that's the leaflets...

"Yes. Then, Environment Minister Ambrozek will visit all 14 regions of the Czech Republic. He already visited the region of Zlin and South Moravia in January and will visit the rest before June. The deputy ministers will also visit the regions to speak with citizens about the environment."

So, what will the advantages and disadvantages, as far as the environment is concerned be?

"The first thing that comes to my mind now is that the Czech Republic is a very valuable country as far as the protection of its landscape and nature is concerned. This is because the country is full of really beautiful landscape areas. So, the first advantage will be that Czech nature will be protected as part of the Natura 2000 network of landscape areas of European importance. The second advantage is that Czech entrepreneurs who will give importance to the environment in their companies, will be able to compete with other European entrepreneurs on the common market. This is a really important point. Czech consumers will also be protected well because consumer protection is given much importance in European policy. This involves eco-labelling and ecological farm products and so on. Regarding the disadvantages, in the field of the environment there are very few. The main one is that we will have to spend a lot of money, several billion Czech crowns by 2010, to protect water from pollution. But this problem will partly be solved with money from the state budget and the cohesion of structural funds, so it's not a disadvantage to the average Czech citizen."

So the disadvantages only involve higher costs?

"Yes. The accession of the Czech Republic to the EU, with regards to the environment, has no other disadvantages in my opinion."

Despite the progress made over the last twelve years, the Czech Republic still expects to face substantial challenges - as far as environmental infrastructure is concerned - in many more years to come. In 1990, it was one of the European countries with highest air pollution emissions per person. By 1999, the country had managed to reduce the emissions to close to EU average. As Mr Kaspar already noted, the country is on the right track and the ministry hopes that with the help of the average Czech citizen and Czech firms, the only thing in the way of the implementation of EU environmental legislation will be the increasing expenses that come with it.