Finnish experts give warning about high EU demands

  • 2001-05-31
  • Aleksei Gunter
TALLINN - An environmental conference that took place in Tallinn on May 29 explored European Union environmental standards and highlighted differences between Finland, a member state, and Estonia, which is preparing for membership.

Earth and Water Ltd., a Finnish environmental consultancy company, presented its vision of EU environmental demands based on Finland's six years of EU membership experience.

Jyrki Kaija, the company's vice president, said that although his country has been a member state since 1995, work on implementing EU standards is ongoing and may never stop.

"Preparations to meet European standards on drinking water began in the early 1990s, and by 1994 a legal basis for that was created," said Kaija.

Estonia entered EU accession talks on environmental issues in 1998. Yet one of the most crucial topics - the quality of drinking water - has remained unchanged up to now.

Andres Kratovich, the head of the Environment Ministry's international cooperation department, said Estonia had applied for a transition period until 2013 to either renovate or build from scratch the necessary water supply systems and water cleaning stations.

Kaija went on to tell the audience gathered at the conference about the Finns' experience in choosing to ignore some of the demands leveled by the EU. "For example, Finland has been maintaining beaches in the country for centuries, and considers EU directives regarding handling them a bit weird," he said.

He explained that for this reason the beaches in Finland are estimated by EU bureaucrats as being improperly maintained.

Kaija also said consultancies in Finland were afraid that competitors from abroad would conquer the market after EU accession. "But that didn't happen. Maybe it's because our language, country and people are too difficult to understand," concluded Kaija, and wished Estonia good luck on its winding path to EU membership.

Estonia has been implementing its own environmental standards, for example through a punitive environmental tax. The Kunda cement factory was a Soviet-era environmental hotspot until the 1990s, when the amount of cement dust discharged decreased rapidly due to a new approach taken by the factory's new owners.

Under the management of Atlas Nordic Cement OY, a large international cement concern based in Finland, which acquired a 35 percent share of Estonia's only cement factory in 1992 and became its total owner last year, 200 million kroons ($11.22 million) have been invested in making it compatible with basic environmental safety rules.

"Thanks to this, it is no longer possible to see Kunda's landscape covered with that dreadful cement dust emitted by the factory," said Arvo Vainlo, the managing director of the plant.

Environmental taxes introduced by the Estonian government had a positive impact on the factory. "But obviously, if a company decided to invest millions of kroons in preserving the environment and the investments only started paying back after 30 years, the company might die from the pollution taxes that are necessary," said Vainlo.

However, he admitted that some of his factory's Western European partners are given subsidies by national governments to work in an ecologically prudent and clean way.

The Kunda cement plant is also working on experimental alternative fuels to cut current expenses on oil shale, which remains the principal fuel used in making cement in Estonia.

"Experts from the Ministry of Environment are testing the usage of the remnant material of processed oil shale as fuel for cement production," said Vainlo.

He said oil shale will prevail as the main fuel in Estonia, and therefore Kunda Nordic Cement is looking forward to opening its own oil shale mine 15 kilometers from the factory, where recent geological research revealed oil shale deposits.