Official Opening (transcript of recordings)

Dan MANOLELI
“Thank you, Mr. Minister. Let me add a few words on an aspect that, in my view, is worth mentioning. Along the decentralization process, the minister tried to grant increased responsibilities to the local environment protection agencies, to strengthen their control prerogatives; to this purpose, the minister initiated the modification of art.13 of Law no.137/95. Let me now give the floor to His Excellency Ambassador Rosapeppe.”

Jhon Rosapeppe
“Thank you very much for inviting me to participate at the opening of this conference. I am very much a guest, in many senses, this being a European -sponsored event, which I very much appreciated being included in, and I am proud to stand next to my friend and Danish colleague. His country, along with the European Union and many other European countries really have made the major foreign commitment to help Romania with these environmental improvements. It doesn’t mean that we are not interested; the United States are very interested; through the USAID program and through our business development program we have been involved in helping Romania make the environmental improvements that we all want to see. I will make just two points: there are many reasons why we care as Americans about improvements in the environment in Romania. One is obviously the health of the people of Romania. Second is obviously that we want Romania to become a member of the European Union and the significant part of Romania’s prospects for joining the European Union is related to the environmental policy and the environmental standards in line with European ones. Third, Romania, as everyone here knows, has world class environmental resources, we talk about the forests, about the Danube, we talk about Danube Delta – these are world class environmental resources, so they are important for all of us. I wish you good luck in your discussions and meetings this week and I appreciate being included in them.”

Dan MANOLELI
“Thank you. We must emphasize that there was hardly any moment or governmental/non-governmental structure, which did not enjoy direct assistance from His Excellency; USAID was also very much present in environment-related activities, including the elaboration of an appropriate Romanian legislation. We thank you, Mr. Ambassador. Now, I would like to ask Mr. Ambassador Eric BOM to tell us a few words.”

Eric BOM
“Thank you. As Denmark’s Ambassador to Romania I’m very pleased to confirm that the Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy strongly supports the Romanian Environmental Forum – FORM99. In the first place we believe it is a good idea that common discussions and such an event take place in this country between the various international and bilateral donors in the environment sector, to enable them to exchange views among each other on their programs in Romania. It is well known that the environmental problems of Romania appear in all the sectors. Romania is not able to live up to the standards of the west or of the standards of the European Union in the field of water supply, treatment of air pollution, waste disposal and recycling, noise, energy consumption and saving, industrial pollution and so on and so on. It is obvious that the solution of Romania’s environmental problems has to be seen in a very long-term perspective. Much international support, financially and technically, is needed to overcome the problems and still it will take many years before Romania will be able to adopt the standards of European Union or other similar international standards. Europe has a special responsibility and interest in finding solutions to the problems in this country. Not only because Romania is our neighbor, but it has applied for membership of the Union and this means the solutions must be found before Romania can join us. We must also have in mind that pollution is crossing the borders and is influencing the economic conditions of production if the standards are not the same. So, common minimum standards are also in the interest of the member states of the European Union. Coordination between international donors is absolutely necessary. Duplication of work should be avoided to get the maximum out of the international financial support. It is our hope and belief that the workshops planned at this Forum will contribute to this objective.

The Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy is present at this Forum and today, at a workshop, it will inform about the Danish – Romanian environment co-operation that goes back to 1994. I shall not go into details about the Danish program, but make only a brief mention of the Danish financial support since 1994 – 20 million USD; Romania in 2000 is expected to benefit up to 9 million USD in support from Denmark. This places Denmark as one of the major financial donors. Secondly, it is essential that the right technical solutions be found to the various environmental problems. It means that the companies with necessary experience, the right ideas and good, reliable quality of products are needed in this country. Notably the combination of ideas that means know-how and high quality of products is the most important to support each other. If the quality of the products cannot match the know-how, it is bad for the solution and, vice versa, if the know-how cannot match with the quality of the products, it is also bad. Environmental policy in Denmark and in other European countries has developed rapidly in the last 30 years. The requirements which various governments in Europe have imposed to national industry has created an advanced industry which in our days is able to produce advanced and intelligent solutions to many of the problems that we are confronted with in all of the world. In Denmark a Ministry of Environment was set up in 1971, which means that Denmark was the first country in the world with a Ministry of Environment. This caused a tough legislation in Denmark and consequently a brand new industry, which has developed, and today the Danish industry in this field is one of the most advanced in the world. Ideas, know-how and high quality of products go hand in hand. Let me give you an example: last week I visited the county of Neamt with the purpose to open a Danish- financed district-heating plan. The idea was to use the enormous amount of sawdust produced by wood industry and the sawmills as a new energy resource. This saw dust was earlier dumped in the rivers and lakes creating a huge pollution problem. The plant is able to produce heat and hot water for 600 families and 5 institutions. In short, a pollution problem has been partially solved and, at the same time, a renewable energy source has been applied. The idea was developed and the Danish companies supplied technical solutions. I do hope that this Forum will contribute to exchange views and ideas on advanced related techniques and technologies of companies from Europe or other countries. This is in the interest of all of us. Finally, let me wish the organizers of the Form99 success in the following days. We hope that the participants can benefit from this get together and that the Forum will contribute to finding solutions to Romania’s environmental problems.”

 

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