News
The Old Town of Budva on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, Montenegro, is only one of many places of natural beauty in the Balkans that EPPA aims to protect
As the impacts of climate change are becoming ever clearer, humanity is increasingly experiencing environmental challenges across the globe, from increased air pollution in urban areas to accelerating rates of deforestation. In the Western Balkans and Turkey, the problems range from air pollution from leaded petrol, to polluted water streams, to biodiversity threatened by illegal logging, urban sprawl and agricultural land abandonment. As part of their integration into the EU, the countries are currently in the process of reforming their national institutions, policies and laws, whilst ramping up their efforts to curtail unsustainable practices and develop strong transboundary cooperation to deal with its environmental challenges.
In its third year of implementation, an EU project aimed at sharing knowledge, expertise and good practice with the Western Balkans and Turkey to address common environmental problems has delivered 40 onsite and virtual events. Despite interruptions from the COVID pandemic, the EU Environment Partnership Programme for Accession (EPPA) has connected 170 experts from across the EU with over 1200 participants seeking to glean tips on how to make consumption and production patterns more sustainable through greater resource efficiency and the implementation of circular economy principles.
The EPPA project provided an important and unique platform for collaboration and exchange of knowledge between seven EU accession countries, the European Commission and EU Member States. We have also managed to involve a large number of partners and experts sharing their exceptional knowledge in broad range of environmental topics from biodiversity issues, water management, air pollution to circular economy and nature protection.
Tomasz Luczynski, EPPA Project Manager
Building the knowledge base by sharing what works well
Launched in 2019, EPPA is an EU-funded environmental protection programme seeking to foster cooperation between participating countries and the EU Member States. Activities are implemented through a system of five working groups and three sub-working groups, covering areas like EU environmental policy, waste, water, air quality, and nature protection. The project targets representatives from ministries and public institutions from six Western Balkan countries ‒ Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia ‒ and Turkey. It also involves other relevant organisations such as the UN Environment Programme, the European Environment Agency, the Joint Research Centre, the CITES Secretariat, and broad range of environmental civil society organisations.
The programme uses the TAIEX instrument, which “fill the gaps” in knowledge and understanding of EU rules and procedures through the exchange of experience and best practice ‒ such as facilitating workshops on circular economy or biodiversity threats ‒ and supports shareability of best practices to optimise efforts. NIRAS Poland, in partnership with the Environment Agency Austria (EAA), has been involved throughout the entire project cycle, from project design to implementation and evaluation.
experts from across the EU connected with EPPA participants
participants (ministry officials, research institutions, civil society, and conservation management agencies)
onsite and virtual events organised by NIRAS and the EAA to date
The NIRAS Poland and EAA team are also implementing the EPPA sister project TRATOLOW, which supports the transition to a low emissions and climate resilient economy in the Western Balkans and Turkey. Read more here.
Among EPPA’s main achievements so far are the development of Progress Monitoring Reports which are an important tool to follow and benchmark in an objective way the efforts of the 7 beneficiary countries to implement EU regulations in the environment sector.
Other major achievements include:
With the project end date scheduled for September of this year, the team is due to prepare a regional agreement on the prevention of plastic pollution with a special focus on marine litter. The recommendations made on green infrastructure and ecological connectivity are also expected to be implemented over the coming months.
You can read more about EPPA and its achievements here.
