Weller's statement published in the journal "Waters of Montenegro" is transmitted in its entirety:
As a well-known fact, the region was historically divided with a railed curtain between the east and the west. However, in the recent years, important initiatives and events have led to the reconciliation of countries in the region and thus created new opportunities for cooperation – including the cooperation in water management. The central role in boosting water cooperation in the region is to expand the EU to the east and south. The EU Water Legislation Act is the Framework of the EU Water Directive. It is one of the most progressive legal acts on waters in the world and promotes water management and protection not on the basis of state or political boundaries, but based on natural geographic and hydrological formations, river basins. The countries that share the Danube basin have to cooperate if they want to fulfill the obligations of the Directive (which is mandatory for EU member states). The directive also supports the idea that the cost of water services must cover its total cost.
In the recent years, the EU has slowly moved to Eastern Europe and has taken over the new member states, which have fully adopted the EU laws. Other candidate countries such as Serbia, Montenegro or Macedonia are all working to establish a legal and institutional framework for joining the EU. This joining process has significant implications for water supply and water management services. In addition to the preparation of river basin management plans, compliance with the Wastewater Treatment Directive is one of the most significant and most expensive obligations required by the EU legislation. For countries joining the EU in the early stages of accession (Hungary, Slovakia or Slovenia), the task of providing a strictly defined wastewater treatment proved to be one of the biggest challenges.
Accession to the EU carries the obligations and benefits, and the costs of fulfilling obligations to control water pollution require the construction of wastewater treatment plants that have not previously existed or were inefficient. This construction took place at great speed in the new member states. Fortunately, the EU can get financial resources to support this process of establishing the necessary wastewater management. The challenge of building this infrastructure is significant and requires engineering capacities and water sector reform to ensure the long-term sustainability of infrastructure and financing needed for maintenance. For potential new EU member countries, lessons learned from the experiences of countries such as Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Romania are helpful in understanding and preparing for the challenges ahead.
Luckily, at the regional level, there are institutions and arrangements that support this exchange of knowledge and cooperation in improving water services and management. The International Danube Protection Commission (made under the Danube Convention) was one of the key institutions to support water exchange and cooperation. Similarly, the Sava Commission, which was formed to unify the Sava countries in the river basin management, played an important role and combines the protection of water and water-related services with economic development.
Text by CdM, on July 18th, 2018, read more at CdM
