Commission Report 2002 (Slovakia)

Chapter 22: Environment

As regards the transposition of the acquis, in the areas of air quality, industrial pollution control and risk management and waste, some progress can be reported. In the fields of water quality, and nature protection, good progress has been made. Close attention should still be paid to the implementation of the acquis with regard to waste management, water quality and in particular industrial pollution control. The principle of integration of environmental protection requirements into the definition and implementation of all other sectoral policies requires continued attention. Slovakia has carried out a range of actions to develop its administrative capacity in the field of the environment. However, Slovakia's administrative capacity to implement the EC environmental acquis still requires close attention, as also set out in the Action Plan. For 2002, an increase of 199 staff for the institutions financed from the state budget was approved; these efforts need to be sustained also for the future. The Accession Partnership priorities in the field of environment have been met to a considerable extent. The implementation of the Action Plan is overall on track.