Cooperation in environment with EU starts

Speaking at a joint press conference at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Pepe said on Tuesday that the project would make a significant contribution to finalization of Turkey’s environmental commitments in its EU adjustment process in time and draw an important road map in regard to environment policy of Turkey.

Pepe noted that the EU had been supporting Turkey with its several finance sources.

Meanwhile, Kretschmer said in his part that the project would be carried out by the Central Finance and Contracts Unit and a Danish consultative firm.

He said that the 24-month project would cost about 5.8 million euro, adding that the project was a part of the support of 16.6 million euro given to Turkey for environment sector in Pre-Accession Program of 2002.

The project will be conducted by a consortium that was formed by expert organizations in Turkey, Denmark, Lithuania, Hungary and Holland. The EU Commission Representation in Turkey supports the project that has a 5.8 million Euro budget.

Under the project, investments which should be made to fulfil 20 directive conditions covering water, air, solid waste and industrial pollution sectors that are known as ‘EU High-Cost Environment Investment Directives’, will be determined and planned together with their financing sources. Thus priority list of investments in environment sector in Turkey will be made and the necessary financing strategy will be developed.

After completion of feasibility studies, reports on effects on environment and engineering studies for six projects to be chosen among the priority list, auction documents will be prepared. This work can be presented to the EU and other international finance organizations and project packages will be prepared as a model to other investments.

Most important goals of the project are development of the capacity of the personnel working in environment sector to prepare projects in EU norms, harmony with the EU and implementation. With this objective, 160 personnel will be given proper training in Turkey and abroad.

An investment program of nearly 30 billion euro is expected to start after finalization of this project for adaptation of high-cost environment investments to the EU standards.