FOREWORD FOREWORD In May 2004, several years of efforts concentrated on meeting conditions for accession of Slovak Republic (SR) to European Union (EU) culminated. SR together with 9 other candidate countries became full members of the EU. The phase of negotiating and meeting conditions for EU accession for chapter 22 Environment within the meaning of National Accession Program - acquis communautaire was completed before the end of 2002. SR fulfilled all environmental requirements of EU, with the exception of 7 negotiated transitional periods for implementation of the most consumptive directions. By this time determinative steps for harmonisation of the Slovak environmental legislation with the one of EU had been made. In 2003 SR followed up with the integration efforts from previous years, and further effort was focused especially on introducing and implementation of the environmental legislation system into practice. From the viewpoint of the harmonisation of environmental legislation, one of the most important steps in 2003 was adoption of the Act No. 245/2003 Coll. on Integrated Prevention and Control of Environment Pollution and on Amendment of some Laws. The aim of this law is to accomplish an overall high level of environment protection by providing for a balanced integrated evaluation of all elements of the environment by the authorities of public administration while allowing facility, which can in crucial way pollution of environment cause. A significant role in this process has been entrusted to Slovak Environment Inspectorate. Consecutively to the EU General Directive on Waters, a proposal of a new Water Act was prepared in 2003, which was adopted by the National Council of Slovak Republic as Act No. 364/2004 Coll. This law will be followed by a Flood Protection Act and amendment of Act No. 442/2002 Coll. on Public Water Supply and Public Sewage System. Day by day we recognise, that the implementation of prevention measures and environmental projects for correcting of past errors, including environmental burdens will also in Slovakia require quite big amount of resources and high priority, as they are already pursued by the EU with particular aid opportunities also for Slovakia. We have to realise, that environmental prevention is still much cheaper, than elimination of the after-effects of environmental emergency situations, while the evaluation of casualties and of some irreversible changes in the country is undeterminable. State of the Environment Report - Slovak Republic 2003 FOREWORD One of the most important supporting factors of environmental prevention was the adoption of Act No. 525/2003 Coll. on Public administration of the Environment Protection and on Amendment of some Laws, which re-established independent local environment administration, cancelled in 1996. During 2003 with continuation in 2004, under the authority of the Ministry of Environment of Slovak Republic, creating of conditions continued on accession of the Slovak Republic to the Convention of the UN Economic Commission for Europe on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (“Aarhus Convention”), which was followed up by the European Parliament and Council Regulation No. 2003/4/ES dated 28 January 2003 on Public Access to Environmental Information. An important step towards the Aarhus Convention was made by adoption of Act No. 211/2000 Coll. on Free Access to Information and on Amendment of some Laws in May 2000, which, however, did not include some specifics concerning environmental information and system of their gathering, retaining and distribution. For this reason, was in 2003 prepared and in March 2004 adopted Act No. 205/2004 Coll. on Gathering, Retaining and Dissemination of Environmental Information and on Amendment of some Laws. The law transposes into the legal system of the SR the Regulation of European Parliament and Council No. 2003/4/EC, and thereby also applicable principles and obligations resulting from the first pillar of the Aarhus Convention. One of the forms of dissemination of environmental information within the meaning of Act No. 17/1992 Coll. on Environment and Act No. 205/2004 Coll. on Gathering, Retaining and Dissemination of Environmental Information is also the Report on the Situation of Environment in Slovak Republic. With respect to the fact, that the Report of the State of the Environment in Slovak Republic for the year 2003 is the eleventh report of this kind, it has become a tradition, that everyone can obtain complex information on environmental situation in SR, either in print or through Internet. This report implements also the evaluation of impacts of particular economical areas on environment with an effort to express solutions and integration of social, economic and environmental problems in accordance with EU Cardiff Initiative and subsequent summits of the EU Council. The content of the whole report confirms that all three pillars of the sustainable development are inseparably connected, and their development exhibits their mutual dependence. The Report of the State of the Environment is a result of a concentration of a wider range of specialists from different departments – from specialists providing for environmental monitoring, evaluation of particular indicators, creation and building of the information system, creation, implementation and evaluation of statistical evaluations, to specialist focused on aimed evaluation of the environment situation in SR and its comparison with other countries, especially in EU and closer in the State of the Environment Report - Slovak Republic 2003 FOREWORD area of Central Europe. The information collected in this process will simultaneously be the groundwork for fulfilment of extensive reporting responsibilities as a result of the Slovak membership in EU – towards the European Committee (EC) and European Environmental Agency (EEA). The responsibility of SR provide further information results from the membership in EUROSTAT, OECD and, last but not least, towards the UN and its operating organisations. I believe, that the presented Report of the State of the Environment in Slovak Republic for the year 2003 will be a valuable source of information about our environment and our care of it for every reader, while becoming a means of implementing the right of every individual to prompt and complete information on the situation of environment and natural resources, the causes and effects of this situation, as expressed in the Declaration of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms in the Constitution of the Slovak Republic. State of the Environment Report - Slovak Republic 2003 COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND INFORMATION SYSTEM Everybody has the right to get prompt and thorough information on the condition of the environment and on the reasons and consequences of this condition. Article 45 of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND INFORMATION SYSTEM x ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING SYSTEM Guarantors and PMS centres of the whole-area monitoring system of the environment in the SR PMS (Partial Monitoring System) Guarantor PMS Centre Air MoE SR SHMI Bratislava Meteorology and climatology MoE SR SHMI Bratislava Water MoE SR SHMI Bratislava Geological Factors MoE SR GS SR Bratislava Soil MoA SR SSCRI Bratislava Biota (fauna and flora) MoE SR SNC Banská Bystrica Forests MoA SR FRI Zvolen Waste MoE SR SEA Bratislava Extraneous substances in food and feed MoA SR FoRI Bratislava Radioactivity of the environment MoE SR SHMI Bratislava Source: MoE SR Analysis of the implementation of monitoring in 2003 x System, indicators, methodology and network of actualised projects for particular PMS, as they were worked out in 2001, are comparable with similar monitoring systems abroad in the EU and OECD countries, while legislative requirements as well as specific needs of the SR from the point of environmental pollution have been observed when forming particular Partial Monitoring systems (PMS), x Building of a whole-area monitoring system has not been performed sufficiently due to failing disposable financing. The funding requirements have been achieved by 60.56 % (needed SKK 220.29 million and reality SKK 133.41 million), x SKK 2.35 million capital funds were required from the MoA SR department, but it was not allocated. Financial resources overview in 2003 (mill. SKK) Capital Expenditure Typical Expenditures Department Needed Reality % Needed Reality % MoE SR 91.00 39.60 43.51 97.30 68.34 70.23 MoA SR 2.35 0.00 0.00 29.64 25.47 85.93 Total 93.35 39.60 42.42 126.94 93.81 73.90 Source: MoE SR State of the Environment Report - Slovak Republic 2003 COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND INFORMATION SYSTEM The Ministry of Environment of Slovak Republic publishes a state of the environment report in Slovak Republic every year. Relevant central authorities of the state administration of the Slovak Republic shall provide necessary materials to it. § 33b par. 1 of the Act No. 17/1992 Coll. on Environment as subsequently amended x ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION SYSTEM In 2003, the MoE SR provided for the current tasks, resulting from the Conception of building the departments’s part of the Public information system MoE SR (DIS) (conception), which included continuing work on solutions, implementation and running the following systems: WAN, the computer network of the Department of environment, Metainfo, the meta-information system, ISM, information system of monitoring, IST, information system of