Background Report

1.5 Rural areas

Rural areas constitute one of the most important issues of spatial planning in the VISION area. Some of these problems are common to those of other parts of Europe, others are very specific to this region or to some parts of this region: 85% of the VISION space can be regarded as rural area. That is exactly the same percentage as in the EU. The share of rural population in the total population is ca. 40-45%, which is somewhat higher than the 35% OECD average. The main difference, however, is that in the eastern half of the VISION area 46% of the rural working population and 19% of the total working population is employed in agriculture, while in the OECD the same indicator is 14 % for the rural working population and 6% of the total working population, respectively.

These figures are, however, very different according to countries, on the one hand, and extremely uncertain, on the other. In this part of Europe, it is difficult to define who is an agricultural earner and who is not. A large part even of urban population is of rural origin and they are performing some part-time agricultural activities. According to estimations, more than half of the Hungarian population performed some agricultural activity at a time when the official employment share has been already below 15%. Similar experiences could be cited from other countries. This reflects also the importance of agriculture for the countries and societies of this region.

Box No. 3 The definition of rural areas

There were several efforts and experiments of defining rural areas. One of the most recent ones is that initiated by the OECD. Considering the declining share of employment in agriculture in OECD member countries, the definition is not related to agriculture, but only to population density. According to this definition, basic administrative units, having lower population density than 150 per km2, are regarded as rural areas. While there could be no doubt that this indicator is adequately reflecting the circumstances of most of the OECD member countries, it is not quite adequate if applied to some VISION countries. There are two reasons for it: (1) As a result of the rapid population growth, several regions surpassed this upper population density threshold, still, they have a rural character both in respect to activity structure and living circumstances. E.g. according to this definition, 81% of the territory of Kosovo and Metohija should have been regarded as urban and not rural area - a proportion higher than in any other European country. Moreover, in 2010 there would be no rural areas in Kosovo at all. Obviously this conclusion is wrong. High population density aggravates the problems of this rural area, but does not alter its character. Kosovo is not the only area of this type: similar - though smaller - areas can be found in Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Moldova, western and south-western Ukraine, north-east-Romania and south-east Poland as well. (2) Most of the problems of central and southeast European rural areas are closely and inseparably connected to agriculture. Therefore, to separate rural areas and agricultural areas is not a productive approach in this region, even if in many rural areas not the agriculture is the main employer and source of income. Therefore, we would propose a combined criterion for this area: rural areas are those with a population density of less than 150 per km2, or with a share of agricultural employment over 15%. This definition of rural population refers to the classification of communities.

Furthermore it would be reasonable to classify rural regions according to three types in relation to the proportion of rural population within their bounda- ries. This is in accordance with already defined OECD indicators:

- Predominantly rural regions: more than 50% rural population, - Significantly rural regions: between 15% and 50% rural population, - Predominantly urbanised regions: less than 15% rural population.

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Box No. 4 The recent history of rural areas

The present situation is to be seen also in historical context. Between the two World Wars and immediately after World War II, these countries were of overwhelmingly agricultural character. The share of agricultural employment was in Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Moldova over 80%, in Romania and Bulgaria between 70 and 80%, in Hungary, Slovenia and in the eastern and southern regions of Italy around 60%, even in Bavaria close to 40% (at the same time in Saxony only 15%, in the Czech Republic 25%). Almost everywhere, there was overpopu- lation in agricultural areas, productivity and living standards, compared to urban areas, were very low.

Between the two World Wars, and after World War II, radical land reforms were carried out in all countries in the eastern part of the VISION area. They contributed to a more equitable distribution of land and offered existence to the rural unemployed, they did not solve, however, the problems stemming from low productivity, overpopulation and poverty.

In the 1950s, with the partial exception of Poland and Yugoslavia, a collectivisation of the agricultural land, cultivated so far by smallhold- ers, took place in all countries of the region under communist rule. Collectivisation was enforced by political, economic and sometimes violent means. These events were, undoubtedly, a big trauma for the whole peasantry, some of them resisted, much more fled from agriculture. But, despite these dramatic events, the 1960s and 1970s were the years of dynamic growth in central European agriculture. The factors contributing to this development were the following:

- the forced industrialisation and the flight of people from rural areas freed the rural areas from the population pressure which blocked mod- ernisation so far. Agriculture could be modernised, productivity could be increased,

- the established big agricultural collective farms could utilise - even if only partly - the economies of scale and through this they could increase productivity and competitiveness, even if their methods of management, incentives and marketing were on a rather low level;

- a big and protectionist market was ensured for agriculture. The food consumption of the local population grew dynamically. These coun- tries did not import any food from the western markets. And for countries having agricultural surplus, the big food market of the Soviet Union proved to be not insatiable.

- finally, the state subsidised the agriculture - at least the big collective and state farms - by providing underpriced agricultural machinery, chemicals and fuel and by favourable credit terms and offered export subsidies.

The support, given to collectivised agriculture led - indirectly - to a certain convergence of rural living conditions and technical infrastructure to the urban standards. This process was, of course, very different according to countries. In Poland and in Yugoslavia, collectivisation didn't take place at large scale, but other conditions (industrialisation, secured market and subsidies) were more or less the same.

The situation of rural areas was very different even within the countries. In peripheral areas, in areas with unfavourable natural conditions and in smaller villages the situation was much worse than in other areas. A large part of the population left these areas and settlements, only old people stayed. Technical infrastructure was missing, social care for the elderly was non-existent. In the seventies and eighties authorities followed a rural centralisation policy. The number of collective farms was reduced, huge big farms, in Bulgaria "agroindustrial complexes", were established, in fact, co-operatives were converted into state farms. They comprised several rural communities. However, the management was, generally, not in the position to control efficiently such huge areas. Rural municipalities were also consolidated, smaller villages lost their own elected bodies and administrations. In many cases, schools were closed, doctors' ambulances ceased to exist. All these measures reinforced the decline of smaller and peripheral settlements. It is, of course, a world-wide phenomenon, but in many central European countries it was forcibly accelerated. The extreme case for that plan was the "village systematisation" in Romania, which aimed to destroy smaller villages and to move rural population into larger urban-type settlements. Fortunately, the collapse of the regime foiled this plan, it was implemented only in smaller areas, mainly around Bucharest.

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Map 4: Active population in agriculture

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Urbanisation and urban housing construction could not keep pace with industrialisation and with economic structural change. In many countries, there were even administrative measures implemented to restrict migration into the cities. As a consequence, a large part of industrial and other non-agricultural workers were forced to stay in their rural homes and commute - daily, weekly or monthly - to their urban workplace.

But even members and employees of the collective agricultural farm organisations were not all engaged in agricultural activity. Co-operatives were obliged to employ all their members and, since it was impossible to employ all of them in agriculture proper, they established smaller or even medium size industrial, manufacturing, processing and construction plants and employed a large part of their members and employees here.

Consequently, the social composition of rural areas changed substantially, a large part of the working force was and is engaged in non-agricultural activities. Still, even this part of the population is dependent on agriculture: partly because family members are divided between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, partly because even non- agricultural workplaces were operated by agricultural organisations.

Not only agriculture and rural society but also rural settlements were transformed in this period. Since most of animal husbandry, machinery and crop storing were concentrated in the estates of the collective farms, new village buildings were not built to house extensive agricultural activities. In some countries and periods building regulations made it even impossible to establish larger farm courtyards. In many cases, building regulations did not take account of local conditions. All this makes it today more difficult to establish private individual farming. People in rural areas invested most of their saved money into building residential buildings having no other opportunity to invest in private economic activities. Young people left rural settlements and most of the houses are not suitable for pursuing handicraft and agricultural activities. Therefore, these houses represent now frozen, unsaleable assets having absorbed most of the past savings of rural people which now would be desperately needed to start new enterprises.

In VISION countries, which are members of the EU, numerous activities have been developed in rural regions, and agriculture is based on larger private and family farms. In Slovenia, agricultural production was based on both socialised factories, co-operatives and private farms, but the latter were not allowed to non-family labour force; quite the contrary, family members on such farms had to seek additional employment in industry and other sectors. The development of rural tourism was promoted in all forms.

Most of the eastern VISION countries, especially in their rural areas, are poorly equipped with infrastructure, with the exception of water supply and basic education. High schools in the rural areas are mostly of agricultural character. Health care provisions are usually in nearby centres of a more urban (less rural) character. In countries with more highly developed infrastructure, problems of dispersed building are more evident. Dispersed building cannot be efficiently included into existing infrastructure networks (sewage systems, energy supply systems, public transport networks).

Rural environment had been threatened and damaged by several factors. Big state and collective farms did not care much for the environmental consequences of their activity. In order to alleviate mechanisation of land cultivation, land was levelled off in large surfaces. In hilly and mountainous areas cultivated terraces were frequently smoothed out, on the plains tree rows and hedges were destroyed. As a consequence, damage, caused by water and wind erosion increased significantly. Problems of erosion of farmland are pronounced. Processes of erosion are here conditioned by natural factors. Cases of erosion which appear in countries, that in the past carried out extensive agricultural 21 Background Report

improvement of farm areas are more difficult to master. The factors of erosion are here artificially caused and it is only possible effectively to rehabilitate them with re-cultivation and re-naturation of the affected areas. Careless irrigation salinated the soil and made it unfertile. In state and collective farms huge cowsheds for 1000-2000 cows, pigsties for 20-30 000 pigs were built, meanwhile little attention was paid to waste disposal. Though the total area of forests increased in central Europe in the last decades, some valuable forests in the Carpathians had been overexploited which had a lasting impact on water regime and had caused frequent landslides. In the villages water pipes were introduced that increased water consumption substantially. Sewage disposal, however, did not keep pace with it, consequently soil and groundwater became seriously polluted.

The network of rural villages is also differentiated. On the plains (the Hungarian, south-Ukrainian, Rumanian and North German plains and Vojvodina) settlements are generally larger. In hilly regions and in areas with more variable relief, rural settlements are smaller. They are the typical rural settlements of the VISION area. In the Czech Republic, for example, the rural population of 3.5 million is living in more than 10 000 rural settlements, the average population size of them is 350. Closely connected with this size are the difficulties of providing them with the facilities and services of technical and social infrastructure. In mountainous areas, settlements are not closed and compact, houses are rather dispersed along the valleys and lower slopes. There are, of course, many exceptions to these general patterns in all countries.

Box No. 5 Two critical types of rural areas

Two types of rural areas exist in the VISION area, which are in especially critical situation:

As a result of demographic development, there emerged rural areas with especially high density of population. The most striking ex- amples for that are Kosovo and Albania, but similar problems, though in lesser extent, can be found in other areas as well. Agriculture cannot provide enough jobs and income. People are forced to deforest areas and to cultivate steep slopes that will accelerate soil degradation and the deterioration of natural environment. Land fertility declines further and this, together with further population growth, gives rise to a vicious circle. Overpopulation in agriculture is blocking modernisation and the increase of productivity in this sector. A large part of the population is unemployed, they are living from social transfers or aid or from transfers of migrant workers from abroad.

The other - and much more widespread - type of rural problem areas in the VISION space are those of depopulated regions. They can emerge as a result of lasting natural population decline, of out-migration and - unfortunately, up to the recent years - of ethnic expul- sion. These areas are also suffering from several environmental problems. Abandoned agricultural areas are deteriorating, they are losing their environmental and natural value. The danger of forest fires, floods and plant and animal pests is increasing. Social and infrastruc- ture problems are also present. In settlements of decreasing population, it is more and more difficult and expensive to maintain social and technical services. Those who continue to stay, are generally elderly people. Without young people, the care for them becomes increasingly difficult. The state of abandoned buildings is also deteriorating, the value of land and real estate is declining. Deprived ethnic and social groups are moving in the abandoned houses and settlements and that is accelerating the out-migration of other groups and is constituting a concentrated social welfare problem in these areas.

1.6 Transportation and energy networks in the VISION area Transport performance

The majority of VISION countries are continental countries. Continental transports, consequently, play the most important role in their transportation. Within continental transportation, railway transportation has still the largest share in freight transports. The railway freight transportation performance (in tonne-kilometres) of the 13 eastern VISION countries was higher in 1993 than that of the then 12 member countries of the EU. While 22 Part One: THE HERITAGE

the share of the railway in the freight transports of the EU was 18% in 1992, the same figure for the eastern half of the VISION area was 75%. In contrast, road transport had a share of 71% in the EU, 22% in the eastern VISION area, respectively. However, the share of the railway is declining rapidly in almost all countries of the region converging towards the structure of the EU. Changing production structures and markets, fierce competition by road transport, and steeply rising relative prices of railway transportation - without improving the services - are diverting a large part of transport to the roads. It has to be added that this high share of railway could have been maintained only in a planned economy, where big enterprises had the decisive role and "just in time" delivery had less importance.

Box No. 6 The high transport-intensity of eastern VISION countries and its reasons

The advantages of favourable freight transportation structure have been more than counterbalanced by the unproportionally high transpor- tation intensity of these countries. Eastern VISION countries have required more than twice as much freight tonne-kilometres to produce 1 ECU of GDP (at purchasing power parity; at exchange rate six times more), than EU countries (1993).

There have been several reasons for this very high transportation intensity:

· The structure of the economy: the high share of agriculture, extraction and heavy industries and the low share of services has made theeconomy, as a whole, transportation-intensive;

· The low unit value of products. Because of lower quality, poor technology, lack of marketing and trade mark, eastern countries earned a lower domestic and export price per kilogram of products, than the western countries, even in the same product category. Machines and construction materials have been too heavy in most branches, the proportion of value to weight was unsatisfactory;

· The geographical situation: being in the central part of Europe, the share of transit freight deliveries has been high. Sea and pipeline transportation, which had more importance in western and less in eastern countries, are not included.

· Lack of transport networks and connections: because of the lack of direct connections and especially due to the centralised trans portation networks, freights had to be transported in longer distances;

· The lack of storage capacities, the bad organisation of transportation and the lack of incentives to economise on transportation gave rise to multiple and unnecessary transportation of products.

EU member Total tonne-kilometres per 100 Non-EU member VISION Total tonne-kilometres per 100 countries ECU GDP produced 1993 countries ECU GDP produced 1993 at exchange rate at PPP at exchange at PPP rate Finland 51.5 46.4 Ukraine 1 075.0 189.7 Sweden 33.2 35.1 Moldova 638.5 58.0 Netherlands 32.8 31.4 Czech Republic 117.2 34.6 Belgium 26.4 23.6 Slovakia 227.3 68.2 Germany 24.3 25.8 Poland 167.5 69.8 United Kingdom 26.0 21.0 Macedonia 70.9 38.7 Spain 20.7 16.2 Romania 193.3 50.9 Denmark 18.8 21.3 Bulgaria 140.8 38.4 Portugal 25.3 15.7 Slovenia 43.3 25.2 Austria 25.0 25.0 Hungary 59.6 30.8 Italy 13.8 11.2 Croatia 30.8 16.9 EU 15 22.1 20.3 Eastern VISION countries 167.6 52.0 Source: own calculations based on UN/ECE: Annual Bulletin of Transport Statistics. Geneva 1995 23 Background Report

Table No. 6 The relative importance of the principal modes of inland freight transport (measured in tonne-kilometres in 1992)*

Country Rail Road Inland Total waterways Albania 34.4 63.1 2.5 100 Bulgaria 56.3 37.6 6.1 100 Croatia 52.6 45.9 1.5 100 Czech Republic 83.5 12.9 3.6 100 Hungary 54.4 18.3 27.3 100 Macedonia 28.8 71.2 - 100 Moldova 90.8 8.9 0.3 100 Poland 57.4 41.8 0.8 100 Romania 62.1 33.7 4.2 100 Slovakia 67.3 26.1 6.6 100 Slovenia 48.1 51.9 - 100 Ukraine 82.3 15.8 2.0 100 Yugoslavia 24.0 75.0 0.8 100 Non-EU member VISION countries 74.6 22.5 2.9 100 Austria 52.6 45.4 2.0 100 Germany 21.6 47.9 30.5 100 Greece 3.8 96.2 - 100 Italy 17.1 82.9 - 100 EU 15 total 18.2 71.2 10.6 100

Source: UN/ECE: Annual Bulletin of Transport Statistics. Geneva 1995 Passenger transportation. In the former decades, some central European VISION countries had the highest railway- passenger intensities in Europe and - following Japan - in the world. In 1980, the four European countries with the highest figures for the number of railway passengers and railway passenger-kilometres were: Hungary, the former GDR, the Czech Republic and Poland. The main reason for this was rapid industrialisation and the fact that urbanisation did not keep pace with it. Huge masses of workers (in Hungary 30% of the working population) commuted daily from other settlements to their work place, mainly by train. The other reason has been the relatively low level of car ownership. But despite the very high number of passengers of public transport, passenger transport in these countries had ever a lower priority in relation to freight transport. Trains were overcrowded, fares were low but the level of services was also low. In recent years, modern Intercity trains have been introduced in several countries. That brought significant improvements, but, for the time being, there exists no high-speed railway in any country of the eastern VISION area.

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Table No. 7 Developments in passenger transportation on railway in the VISION area and in the EU

Country Number of railway Railway passenger Country Number of railway Railway passenger- passengers kilometres passengers kilometres per inhabitant per inhabitant 1980 1993 1980 1993 1980 1993 1980 1993 Eastern VISION space EU member countries

Bulgaria 11.2 8.9 789.1 689.1 Austria 22.1 22.9 958.4 1 181.0 Croatia 4.0 199.0 Belgium 16.5 13.6 703.3 625.6 Czech Republic 34.1 23.5 1 492.0 810.5 Denmark 25.5 27.0 745.7 887.3 Hungary 37.7 15.6 1 422.0 827.4 Finland 7.7 8.7 630.6 591.5 Macedonia 1.0 56.5 France 12.4 14.1 973.1 1 011.0 Moldova 4.1 377.5 Germany 17.4 16.9 604.8 726.4 (former FRG) Poland 29.9 11.6 1265.0 616.9 Germany 36.3 20.7 1 318.9 639.0 (former GDR) Romania 15.3 9.9 1022.9 852.4 Greece 1.0 1.1 146.4 166.7 Slovakia 16.4 552.1 Italy 6.7 7.7 699.4 827.7 Slovenia 6.3 283.9 Netherlands 13.1 21.9 594.0 1 000.0 Ukraine 10.2 1 453.9 Spain 5.4 9.0 364.9 395.2 Yugoslavia 3.0 285.0 Sweden 10.6 10.6 823.2 666.2 United Kingdom 13.2 12.3 527.0 528.6

Source: UN/ECE: Annual Bulletin of Transport Statistics. Geneva 1995; Figures for Czech Republic 1980 from National Report

At the beginning of the nineties, the number of passengers in public transport declined radically in several countries, due to increasing unemployment, budget constraints, and increasing car ownership.

In 1992, the number of railway passengers in most eastern countries was substantially less than in 1980. While in most western countries an increase in the number of railway passengers can be experienced, the contrary of that is true for most eastern countries.

Inland waterway transport had more limited importance in the VISION area, than in the western part of Europe. Its share in total freight transport is only 2.9% while the same figure for the EU is 10.6% (1992). The reason is both of geographical and historical nature. Geographically, a large part of the VISION area has continental climate and only few rivers carry sufficient water to make them navigable. It is also a mountainous area where the construction of canals is more difficult and expensive, in some areas even impossible. The historical reason is that in the pre-railway epoch, when most western European inland waterways were built, eastern countries were not on the level of economic development that they could afford and would really need it. The total length of built inland waterways (canals) in the whole VISION area is 1 371 km, while alone in France the respective figure is 4 326 km. The total length of inland waterways - including rivers and lakes - in the VISION area is about 15 000 km.

25 Background Report

Maritime transportation has also a smaller share in the VISION area. About 10% of all goods loaded and unloaded in European sea ports were loaded and unloaded in the ports of the VISION area. Comparing with the nearly 50% share of the region in European rail transportation, it indicates the relatively small importance. Nevertheless, in the process of integration and globalisation, the share of maritime transports will increase in these countries, and so will the significance of ports in the region. Out of this 10%, one half of it was loaded and unloaded in Adriatic ports (the overwhelming part in Italy), one-third in the Aegean ports and one-sixth in Black Sea ports, belonging to the VISION area (Bulgaria, Romania, Odessa region). The bulk of import deliveries consists of crude oil and oil products, secondly from iron ore. In fact the largest ports in the Adriatic are crude oil ports, where one part is processed other part transported farther by pipelines.

Air transportation is increasing in all countries of the region. In the East however, it had for long time much less importance than in western countries. The restriction on foreign travel kept tourist flights on a low level. Domestic air transportation had quite different importance in different countries. In the former Soviet republics, flying was a usual way of travelling, considering the large distances and the low cost of flights. That is the reason why in countries, like the Republic of Moldova or the Ukraine the share and frequency of domestic - i.e. Soviet - air trips was much higher in the past decades than in the other countries of the region. In some countries (e.g. Hungary) domestic flights did not exist at all.

All small countries had their own airlines with a limited fleet of aircraft and with a limited number of flight routes (exception has been the Aeroflot, having been the largest airline of the world). The intention of strong centralised control of people's movements in the eastern countries did not enable generally for foreign airlines, to fly to any other city than to the capital (exception has been the former Yugoslavia and former GDR). After the withdrawal of the Soviet (Russian) Army from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, the former GDR and Hungary, many formerly closed airports have been opened again for civilian air transport. However, to equip them with up-to-date technical security and service facilities and to eliminate environmental damages would require huge investments what the countries cannot afford. Simultaneously, it has become also clear that small eastern European airlines alone cannot survive in the world-wide competition. They have already become or they will become parts of global networks providing them with world-wide marketing and service facilities.

Transportation networks

The density of transportation networks has been (and is) very different within the region.

Railway networks were built out in the second half of the last century, and densities depended largely upon the empire, a given area belonged to in those times. In the German and Habsburg empires, relatively dense railway networks were established, densities in the Russian and Ottoman empires were substantially lower. These differences exist up to the present time: while some central European countries are among those, having the most dense railway networks in Europe (the Czech Republic has, in fact, the most dense railway network in the World), in the South and in the East, densities are much lower. Even within some countries (Poland, Yugoslavia), regional differences in densities can be traced back to the 19th century borders of empires.

In the recent decades, countries, both with low and with high railway line densities in the region faced serious chal- lenges. In countries with low densities, the lack of connections restricted the efficient use of the railway networks. In 26 Part One: THE HERITAGE

27 Background Report

28 Part One: THE HERITAGE

countries with dense networks, the operation and maintenance of under-utilised lines caused serious economic problems. Maintaining and servicing the same network by declining freight and passenger transport caused increasing losses and required higher state subsidies for state railway companies. The intention to close these under-utilised lines, however, was met by hard resistance on the side of the affected communes and people and therefore achieved only limited suc- cess.

Road networks were built mainly in the 20th century. They reflect more recent economic development differences and density distribution markedly differs from that of the railways. The basic road network is existing in every country of the VISION area - including the eastern ones. Accessibility of almost all settlements was ensured by the construction of feeding roads (the exception is Albania where a large part of villages cannot be accessed in some period of the year). However, a part of the road network is of insufficient quality. Furthermore, a large part of roads in built in areas is not yet paved. The construction of motorways has not been a priority objective for a long time. The length and density of motorways is strikingly different between western and eastern countries.

The differences in networks are reflected in accessibility relationships as well. Countries in the eastern half of the VISION area were centralised and centrally controlled states, and infrastructure development served the purposes of central control. Consequently, accessibility in the spatial hierarchical system is relatively good. Facilities to access the next administrative centre - especially the capital city - and the frequency of public transport to those centres are the most developed ones. On the other hand, connections between settlements of the same rank and function are rather poor in all levels of the hierarchy. The radial system of transportation is extremely vulnerable, especially when a former unitary state is falling apart. This radial system has been especially characteristic in Hungary and in the former Soviet Union, but elements can be found in Poland, the Czech Republic and Yugoslavia as well.

Border-crossings: the bottlenecks of transportation in the VISION area

The majority of countries in the VISION area are continental countries, divided from each other by long continental borders. The total length of continental borders in the region is 16 100 km.

Before the political change, the governments in the eastern half of the region - with the exception of former Yugo- slavia - have always endeavoured to isolate their country from the outside world as hermetically as possible. This has been true also for borders between the so-called "fraternal countries", but especially for countries along the Iron Curtain. From the sixties on, the regimes on the borders had been somewhat loosened, still border crossing contin- ued to be difficult and tiresome. The number of crossing points continued to be very small, their capacity rather restricted.

Table No. 8 Densities of railway, road and motorway networks in the countries of the VISION area

Country Railway lines density - Road density - Motorway density - km/1 000 km2 km/1 000 km2 km/1 000 km2 Czech Republic 119.7 709.1 4.9 Germany 114.4 1 767.4 30.9 Hungary 83.3 325.1 3.8 Poland 74.8 741.6 0.8 29 Background Report

Slovakia 74.7 364.3 4.0 Austria 66.8 444.4 18.7 Slovenia 59.3 730.8 13.2 Italy 53.5 1 012.6 20.6 Romania 48.1 306.7 0.5 Croatia 47.4 476.3 5.2 Yugoslavia 38.8 379.5 3.7 Bulgaria 38.7 282.9 2.5 Ukraine 38.0 281.5 3.0 Macedonia 35.9 236.9 4.0 Moldova 34.2 314.8 ... Albania 23.4 ...... Bosnia-Herzegovina 19.7 ...... Greece 18.8 303.0 3.2

Source: UN/ECE: Annual Bulletin of Transport Statistics. Geneva 1995

The situation was paradox because - despite their not very developed level - existing transportation networks would allow the establishing of a much denser network of border crossings. A large part of the present borders did not exist before World War I or World War II. A relatively dense network of roads and railways connected the areas, which are now on the two sides of the borders. The case is even truer for the new states, established in the 1990s. In 1992-93 the length of international borders in the region has increased by 50%, from 11 000 up to 16 100 km. These areas have been even more connected by roads and railways than those separated 50 or 80 years ago. According to analyses, only 40% of built roads crossing the borders are used presently as international border crossings. Some others can be used only by citizens of the two neighbouring countries, or regions, some are open only for a couple of hours daily, some are open only on holidays or on some extraordinary events, again others are never crossbar. By railways the proportion is somewhat more favourable: 70% of railway lines, crossing the borders are used at present as international crossing points (recently, many railway lines have been put out of operation even inside the countries. Shut-down railway lines, however, are more frequent in border regions).

The capacities of existing border-crossing points are unsatisfactory. The number of gates is small. Passenger and freight traffic is usually separated but passengers requiring and not requiring visa are usually not. Waiting times of 10-20 hours at freight transportation are usual, custom clearance procedures are slow and tiresome.

Out of the 16 100 km borders 3 633 km are constituted by rivers. The Danube alone accounts for 1 000 km as border river, the other 2 500 km is constituted by other major rivers. Therefore, bridges have an extraordinary important role in border crossing. The situation is not very favourable. The number of cross border bridges is unproportionally small. Some bridges have not been reconstructed since World War II. There is one bridge along the whole 470 km long Romanian-Bulgarian Danube border1.

1 Romania and Bulgaria are still debating about the place of a new bridge, Slovakia and Hungary about the technical solution of a Danube bridge to be reconstructed, Hungary and Ukraine about the division of the costs of a new or reconstructed bridge on the Tisa. Austrian citizens have refused in a local referendum to build a bridge on the Morava (March) to Slovakia. 30 Part One: THE HERITAGE

As a consequence of border changes, curious situations emerged. Roads and railways connecting cities in the same country are crossing borders, sometimes several times (e.g. the railway line from Galaþi to Odessa crosses the Ukrain- ian-Moldovan border six times!). Some cities can be accessed by railway only from the railway networks of other coun- tries (e.g. Velki Krtiš in Slovakia or Lendava in Slovenia). There are dozens of such cases in the VISION area, espe- cially in the successor countries of former federations. In some cases there are mutual agreements between the re- spective governments for utilisation, in others there are not. Some former principal railway lines, crossing now sev- eral borders were downgraded or even closed.

Energy production and energy networks

The countries of the VISION area were the largest energy consumers of Europe for decades. The western countries did so because of high level of development, the eastern countries because of high level of energy intensity. Though energy consumption in the eastern half of the region declined significantly in recent years, it is, in relation to GDP, still high. The most important data of energy production in the VISION area are shown in Annex table No. 3.

With the exception of Albania and Poland, all countries of the VISION area are net importers of energy, some of them in large scale. Italy is importing 81%, Austria 74% of their total energy consumption. The respective per- centages in the eastern countries are somewhat lower, but their importation have been restricted basically to those from the Soviet Union and therefore the risk of dependence is still large.

Until the end of the 1980s, VISION countries have belonged to two separated energy systems. Italy, Austria, Greece and Germany and some Yugoslav republics belonged to the western European system, the other eastern European countries belonged to the energetic system of the COMECON. There was no connection between the two systems. Some natural gas pipelines, delivering Soviet gas to western countries, crossed the central European coun- tries without becoming part of the eastern system.

Oil and gas supply were provided for the eastern countries from the Soviet Union through the pipeline "Friendship". This pipeline has been divided, still in Soviet area, into two branches, the northern one leading to Poland and the former GDR, the southern one leading to Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The capacity of the pipeline has been - with the financial contributions of the purchasing countries - enlarged from time to time. Natural gas supply came also from the Soviet Union on the pipelines "Union" and "Fraternity" with the same financial construction. These pipe- lines are, for now, obsolete, the frequency of technical faults is high.

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Box No. 7 Frequency of international road border control points and border bridges in the VISION area

Country Length of Number of Border River Border Length of Number of borders international length the river bridges considered border per border border crossings crossing Italy 235 12 19.6 Drina YU-BiH 192 3 Slovenia 1 334 43 31.0 Salzach D-A 105 9 Czech Republic 2 290 56 36.5 Kolpa HR-SLO 131 5 Germany 1 253 33 38.0 Sotla HR-SLO 55 2 Austria 1 143 29 39.4 Thaya A-CZ 20 0 Croatia 875 22 39.8 Dnestr MD-UA 90 2 Slovakia 1 354 31 43.7 Total 3 633 67 Macedonia 748 14 53.4 Poland 1 972 35 56.3 Border sections Length Number of Border length Hungary 2 008 32 62.8 km international in km per road border crossing Yugoslavia 1 453 18 80.7 crossings point Albania 720 8 90.0 Czech Republic-Slovakia 252 13 19.4 Bulgaria 1 867 16 113.1 Slovenia-Italy 232 12 19.3 Romania 2 508 22 114.0 Slovenia-Austria 330 12 25.4 Moldova 1 389 8 173.6 Slovenia-Croatia 670 16 41.9 Ukraine 2 091 9 232.3 Germany-Poland 442 12 36.8 Germany-Czech Rep 810 21 38.6 River Border Length of Number of Czech Rep.-Austria 466 9 40.2 the river bridges Macedonia-Bulgaria 165 3 49.3 border Macedonia-Albania 151 3 50.3 Danube D-A 26 1 Poland-Czech Rep. 762 13 50.6 “ SK-H 183 2 Hungary-Slovenia 102 2 51.0 “ HR-YU 95 3 Austria-Hungary 366 7 52.3 “ YU-RO 222 1 Yugoslavia-Macedonia 221 4 55.3 “ RO-BG 470 1 Macedonia-Greece 228 4 57.0 total 996 8 Slovakia-Hungary 515 9 57.2 Oder D-PL 187 6 Poland-Slovakia 444 7 63.4 Neisse D-PL 198 5 Yugoslavia-Bulgaria 341 5 63.6 Bug PL-BR, UA 363 2 Hungary-Croatia 329 5 65.8 San PL-UA 55 0 Hungary-Romania 442 6 73.7 Morava A-SK 80 0 Hungary-Yugoslavia 151 2 75.5 Ipoly SK-H 107 3 Slovakia-Ukraine 90 1 90.0 Tisa H-SK 9 0 Romania-Moldova 450 5 90.0 “ H-UA 32 1 Slovakia-Austria 91 1 91.0 “ RO-UA 42 0 Yugoslavia-Albania 287 3 95.7 Prut RO-MD 450 5 Romania-Bulgaria 609 6 101.5 “ RO-UA 30 0 Hungary-Ukraine 103 1 103.0 Drava H-HR 133 2 Yugoslavia-Romania 476 4 119.0 “ HR-SLO 19 1 Bulgaria-Turkey 259 2 120.0 Sava HR-BiH 372 9 Albania-Greece 282 2 141.0 Mur H-HR 33 1 Poland-Ukraine 428 3 142.7 “ HR-SLO 30 1 Bulgaria-Greece 493 2 247.0 “ SLO-A 30 2 Romania-Ukraine 531 2 266.0 Bojana YU-AL 15 0 Moldova-Ukraine 939 3 313.0

32 Part One: THE HERITAGE

Map 7: Nuclear power plants

33 Background Report

In order to ensure the diversification of energy sources, the "Adria" oil pipeline had been built from the Croatian Adriatic coast to Hungary and Czechoslovakia. It was, however, hardly utilised since its completion because, on the one hand, Soviet oil was cheaper, on the other hand, during the Balkan war the pipeline was damaged and blocked. Up to the present day, Russia is the principal supplier of oil and gas to the central European countries. Western European countries of the VISION area are also purchasers of Russian gas, but principal oil supplies stem from the Middle East and North Africa, partly from the North Sea.

Electricity networks of the VISION area constituted also two separate systems. Both eastern and Western countries had interconnected systems within the group, countries, belonging to different groups, however, were not connected, and if eventually they were, then only with lines of lower voltage. There were countries, which have been massive importers of electricity (e.g. Hungary). For them, the unilateral dependence from this system has been (and is until now) a significant security risk. One of the main tasks is now to connect the systems of the eastern countries to the electricity system of western Europe. Simultaneously it would be reasonable to diversify the energy sources. Its precondition is to build lines of high voltage and to apply the rules and equipment of compatible control systems. This project has already begun: German, Austrian and Italian systems are connected with Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Slovenian ones. Farther works are needed to increase the range and capacity of these systems.

In 1993, out of the 18 countries of the VISION area 10 (Austria, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Moldova, Yugosla- via, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Albania) had no nuclear power plants. In Romania, the nuclear power plant has been put into operation in 1997. The number of nuclear power plant sites operating in the VISION area is 13. Out of the 13 sites 6 are in Germany and 7 in the other countries. It is important to note that out of the 13 nuclear power plant sites of the VISION area, 7 have been built on the Danube and are using the water of the Danube for cooling purposes.

1.7 The state of the environment

Before World War I, the countries of the eastern half of the VISION area had had low levels of pollution and hardly damaged environment. They were overwhelmingly agricultural countries, where rural households utilised (for heating, cooking and feeding the animals) their wastes and industrialisation hardly began. After 40-50 years, in the 1970s and 1980s they were among the most polluted areas of Europe and of the World. l Rapid industrialisation had been carried out with no respect to the environment. Priority was given to sectors of industry (metallurgy, energy industries, chemical industry) polluting the environment most. The very high energy and material intensity of industries, necessarily, resulted in huge masses of industrial waste. Disorganisation and the lack of discipline in the industrial plants contributed also to the high level of pollution. Penalties and fines for pollution had been of no use, since all incomes and expenses of enterprises, including penalties, have been regulated and, after all, had been born by the state budget. Technologies with low pollution were unknown or there were no incentives to introduce them; l Since material production had been given top priority, hardly any financial means were left for the development of services, including urban communal services. Heating systems were obsolete, emitting large amounts of air polluting materials. Sewage treatment did not keep pace with water consumption, consequently sewage flew 34 Part One: THE HERITAGE

untreated in the rivers. Two-stroke engines and old, obsolete passenger cars caused high traffic pollution, fuel had high sulphur and lead content. As a consequence, urban areas became seriously polluted. l The nationalisation and collectivisation of agriculture created huge collective and state farms. The implementa- tion of mechanisation and the use of chemicals were not implemented carefully enough, the structure of the soil was frequently destroyed and oversatiated with chemicals. Large animal husbandry plants produced manure in large concentration which was not treated adequately. Large scale farming destroyed the traditional landscapes. Hedges, forest stripes disappeared, terraced slopes were flattened giving way to water and wind erosion. l Finally the whole ideological indoctrination suggested that there were no limits to socialist society's ability to transform nature. Information about destruction of nature and pollution was top secret. People had only one-sided information about environmental movements abroad. Consequently, the environmental consciousness of society was rather weak. Environmental policy and environmental consciousness emerged only in the seventies, when the situation became already dramatic and the objective couldn't be any more prevention, only damage limitation.

The regions of Germany, Slovenia and Italy were relatively less polluted areas (it refers to Bavaria and Baden- Württemberg in Germany. The situation in the new Länder had been similar to that of eastern VISION countries). In Austria, environmental movements and the strengthening priority of environmental issues, beginning from the sixties, contributed to preserving, even to substantial improving the state of the environment. Improvements are considerable especially in the eastern half of Austria. In Italy, the situation is somewhat less favourable. Water and air problems are mostly present in the regions Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Puglia. In Molise, the hydrological equilibrium has been disturbed by abandoning the cultivation of some areas and by massive migration from inner areas to the coastal stripe.

In the eastern half of the VISION area, the general level of air pollution was the highest in the more industrialised northern countries, and within them in the most industrialised areas and big agglomerations. But it refers to the general level of pollution. The most endangered smaller trouble spots could be found in the southern countries, in Romania and Bulgaria, where treatment facilities had been especially neglected.

Air pollution was a really "transnational" issue in the region and - due to the dominant north-west winds - the largest polluters and the most polluted countries only partly coincide. The largest "net exporters" of air pollution were Germany, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria, the largest "net importers" Austria, the Ukraine and Romania.

The cross-border impact of water pollution was more restricted and more "channelled". Generally, countries along the lower course of rivers are in a more unfavourable situation, by receiving the already polluted water from countries, situated at the upper course. In many countries of southeast Europe, water quality depended not so much on the own purification efforts, rather on the self-cleansing capacity of the rivers. That was the reason for the Danube being relatively cleaner than the larger or smaller tributaries.

There is - even now - a trend in central and south-eastern Europe, which is seriously threatening the quality of ground water. During the last decades, water supply and water pipeline networks were dynamically extended in rural areas. Sewage networks and sewage treatment did not keep pace with it. As a consequence of that, ground water became seriously polluted in many rural areas, now threatening water supply as well. The closing of the so-called "water- sewage scissors" has become priority task in many countries. 35 Background Report

1.8 Natural heritage

The VISION area possesses a vast natural wealth of great diversity. This wealth is being threatened from human activity in many places. Protected areas can not be dealt with in isolation. If done so, there is a great risk that activities from neighbouring or even more distant areas may bring harm to the environment. Protected areas must be viewed up in their broader geographical complexes / hinterlands.

The important elements of natural heritage in the VISION area are the following:

Wetlands: The role of wetlands - bogs, marshes - has been increasingly realised for ensuring sustainable develop- ment. Wetlands play a positive role for the water balance. Biodiversity is very high in wetlands and they support biodiversity of the surrounding landscape; wetlands help to prevent nitrogen and phosphorus from reaching the sea; thereby the eutrophication of the sea can be limited; some wetlands can be used for recreation, e.g. for fishing, hunting and bird watching. Unfortunately the number and size of wetlands in the VISION area is much smaller than in other parts of Europe. The main reasons for this, besides the mountainous character of the region, are the big water engineering works, having begun in the early 19th century and lasting until the recent years. In the course of these works rivers had been controlled, swamps and bogs had been drained, the level of the rivers had been controlled by dams. At the beginning of the 19th century, 35% of the Hungarian great plain was covered by water in the whole year or in certain seasons of the year. Today, the water-covered area is less than 1%. Similar water engineering works had been carried out in Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Italy. Nowadays, there are 70 wetlands registered in the VISION area with a total area of 11 300 km2. More than half of it can be found in Romania in the Danube Delta which is the largest and most valuable wetland in the VISION area. Several wetlands are registered in the floodplain of the Danube. Another type of wetlands can be found around the lakes, many of them constituting cross-border wetland areas.

Protected natural areas and nature reserves. Out of the protected natural areas in Europe, almost 50%, are in the VISION space. The total protected area of the VISION space is 23 601 km2. Since different countries apply not quite uniform criteria by classifying protected areas (national parks, nature reserves, biosphere reserves, protected areas, natural monuments etc.), these categories aren't directly comparable. In general, it can be stated that the highest proportion of national area under some kind of nature conservation protection can be found in Austria (28.3%), in Germany (27.0%), in Slovakia (19.5%) and in the Czech Republic (15.8%). All the other countries have substan- tially lower percentages of protected areas. However, looking at national parks (the 1st level of protection), the rank- ing is quite different. Countries in the southern part of the VISON region have much more and larger national parks and much less of lower ranking natural protection areas. Several VISION countries started their natural protection programmes by designating their national parks, while the designation of more permissive protected landscape areas and their regulation is not yet elaborated. The differences in classification and treatment of protection areas are reflecting the differences in decentralisation and in the character of legal regulation in the respective countries. A large part of protected areas in some countries in the eastern half of the VISION space had been designated only in the last decade. Most of the protected areas are to found in the mountain areas of the Alps, Carpathians, Apennines, Dinaric Alps and the Balkans. The majority of them are forest areas, but some of them are pastures, bush and scrub landscapes. A large part of valuable wetlands are also protected areas. The most western lying steppe areas of Europe, under natural protection, are also to be found in the VISION area (Ukraine, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy). A large part 36 Part One: THE HERITAGE

37 Background Report

38 Part One: THE HERITAGE

of the most valuable ecosystems is situated in border areas. Borders run traditionally along rivers or mountain ranges, which are the most apt places for the evolution of these biotops. Additionally, in most eastern countries, borders - especially borders to western countries - were forbidden areas for tourism, travel, even for economic activity. Eco- systems could develop undisturbed and untouched for several decades.

Europe is particularly rich of cultural landscapes, which are formed by various combinations of human and natural factors and illustrate the evolution of human society, its settlements, and their interaction with nature in time and space. They acquired socially and culturally recognised values because of the simultaneous presence of natural val- ues and of remains reflecting skills or distinctive traditions. Special care was given to these cultural landscapes in Italy, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Austria and Germany. The combined protection of natural environment and human activity is the missing element of the protection regulations of several other VISION countries.

Essential part of the natural heritage of the VISION area is the great number and large variety of spas and thermal baths. As a consequence of the mountainous and hilly character of the region, springs can be found in many places having different mineral contents and different medicinal, curing effects. An unproportionally high percentage of European health resorts are to be found in the VISION area, especially in Austria, Czech Republic, Saxony, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and in the Carpathians. Many of them, having a 19th century flair, are part of the cultural heritage as well. Hot springs, in contrast, are to be found mostly on the plains, where the geothermal gradient is high. Dense networks of thermal baths are in Emilia-Romagna, on the Hungarian plain and on its fringes in Romania and Yugo- slavia. Unfortunately, spas and thermal baths are threatened by the pollution of ground water. Another source of danger is mining activity, especially in karst areas, where, in order to enable the mining, deep water sources are pumped and led away.

Table No. 9 Natural protection areas* in the VISION area 1998 Country Area 1000 Share out ha of of which: Area 1000 ha Share of national number of national parks territory highly protected out of total % areas (mostly protected area national parks) in % Albania 76 2.8 16 38 50 Austria 2 344 28.3 2 18 1 Bosnia-Herzegovina 25 0.5 1 17 68 Bulgaria 491 4.4 33 291 59 Croatia 375 6.7 13 92 25 Czech Republic 1 223 15.8 6 88 7 Germany 9 414 27.0 3 37 0.4 Greece 223 1.7 8 60 27 Hungary 629 6.8 5 159 25 Italy 2 146 7.3 11 372 17 Macedonia 180 7.1 10 163 91 39 Background Report

Moldova 39 1.2 4 19 49 Poland 2 911 9.6 16 165 6 Romania 1 074 4.7 26 1 038 97 Slovakia 957 19.5 7 202 19 Slovenia 115 5.7 1 84 73 Ukraine 898 1.6 21 725 81 Yugoslavia 327 3.2 8 145 44

* Definitions used in this table aren't necessarily identical with national definitions Source: UNEP-UNDP-World Bank: World Resources. A Guide to the Global Environment. 1998

1.9 Cultural heritage

Architectural heritage comprises monuments, groups of buildings as well as sites of historical, archaeological, artis- tic, scientific, social or technical interest. But cultural heritage is a concept, which is going beyond architectural heritage and it should not be dominated solely by the past. It is a cornerstone of regional and national and European identity. Accordingly, spatial planning should approach this issue in a complex way.

The VISION area is one of the scenes of the development of the oldest European cultures. The Balkan penin- sula is the first scene of the cultures of the Bronze and Iron Age in Europe. Celtic, Getic, Thracian and Dacian cul- tures have left their traces in the region. The present area of Greece is the primary area of Greek monuments but ancient Greeks established colonies in southern Italy and along the Black Sea coast as well. The southern and western part of the region was part of the Roman Empire. Byzantine culture has left its mark in the region. Two cultures, the Christian Orthodox and the Ottoman culture, which were shaping fundamentally some parts of the region, were, in a certain sense, heirs of the Byzantine culture. Italy and the central European countries had been mostly shaped by the dominant western European cultural styles: Romanesque, gothic, renaissance and baroque. Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic had been among the central scenes of these cultural and architectural movements. Some of the high- lights of these styles can be found in the region.

In some rare cases, whole cities and neighbourhoods are marked by the same style. In most cases, however, it is not so. Different ages and styles have left their marks on the cities, most of them are displaying now a variegated pic- ture. Unfortunately, the history of the region had been stormy enough to destroy a large part of the archaeological- cultural heritage. The destruction has been of different extent: Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic and Slovenia be- long to the relatively more fortunate countries in this respect, while Germany, Poland, the Ukraine and Hungary suffered the largest destruction during the centuries.

As already mentioned, most of the VISION countries belonged to large empires during a long period of their history. Borders did not exist or they did not play the same role as in the 20th century. Cultural, architectural and spiritual schools had been of cross-border character, individual artists worked in several countries of the region. Consequently, there are architectural or artistic regions whose borders do not coincide with the present borders. Dense zones of orthodox monasteries are crossing the borders. The same Byzantine-Venetian style can be found on both sides of the Adriatic. German settlers took along their technique and style of architecture to their new 40 Part One: THE HERITAGE

Map 10: Monuments registered as UNESCO World Cultural Heritage

41 Background Report

home countries. The unique eclectic style of the Habsburg monarchy has left its marks in several countries. This fact offers a series of opportunities of transnational co-operation in the field of researching, analysing maintaining cul- tural heritage and in its utilisation for tourism.

The majority of the nations in the VISION area were rural, agricultural societies during the most of their history. Con- sequently, rural cultural heritage is as important for them as urban one. Village architecture, folkloric arts and the preparation of craft objects for everyday use are still vivid in some regions. This can serve both as part of the economic base of the communities and as instrument of local and regional identity building.

There were two major political factors, which had an impact upon the preservation of cultural heritage in the VISION area in recent times: the one has been communism, the other nationalism. Communism wanted to get rid of those parts of the nations' past which had been related to the ruling classes and to religion. "Unfortunately", a large part of arts and architecture belonged to this sphere. Nevertheless, this intention had only very limited success in the VISION area.

Church destruction took place only in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s and in Albania in the recent dec- ades. But even if deliberate destruction has been rare, inadequate use and careless treatment inflicted much damage to the historical and cultural heritage. Furthermore, totalitarian thinking could have damaged cultural, architectural heritage without directly intending its destruction. Urban planning and construction technologies, thinking only of large- scale housing estates, large squares and wide avenues, destroyed many elements of cultural heritage in the process of urban reconstruction and of establishing large housing estates.

Nationalism, on the one hand, promoted and cared for the protection of national cultural heritage supporting their interpretation of national history. On the other hand, nationalistic policies neglected or even destroyed those elements of cultural heritage, which did not fit in this perception. It is an especially serious problem in the eastern parts of the VISION space where there are several areas inhabited by more than one nationality with distinctive cultural heritage and there are areas which have been inhabited in the past by national and religious groups which do not live there any more. Several churches, mosques, synagogues, monuments and buildings - up to the most recent time - have become victims of these ideologies (the most flagrant examples of it have been demonstrated by the recent war in the Balkans). Therefore, in all countries of the region legal and professional arrangements are needed to preserve the respect for and the memory of all nations and nationalities, language and religious groups, creating a specific cul- tural heritage.

After the political change and with the opening of the borders a new widespread phenomenon emerged: the stealing and smuggling of cultural, artistic works and objects from eastern countries. Churches, castles, monasteries, librar- ies are robbed, deprived of their most valuable objects of arts and smuggled to countries where they could be sold on a much more solvent market. Considering that Germany and Austria are the main illegal marketplaces of smuggled central European objects of art, co-operation of the respective administrative, police and justice organs of eastern and western VISION countries is of vital importance. Comprehensive cataloguing of the cultural heritage may be of substantial help also in this respect.

42 Part Two: THE CHALLENGE

Many countries face now the problem how to treat the "cultural heritage" of the socialist era. A lot of buildings and monuments had been created during the last four-five decades, which are now marking the view and skyline of many cities and settlements. Many of the most provoking monuments, symbolising the old system, had been already removed. It is, however, important, not to commit again the mistakes of the past. The recent architectural and cultural her- itage should be reconsidered only from aesthetic and practical, not from ideological point of view. It has to be pre- served what is worth to preserve, because - willing or not willing - it became part of the respective nations histori- cal heritage.

43 Background Report

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