Heavy Doors of the Ministry of Environment Remain Closed
One of the pillars of the Aarhus convention is the public information, especially if the public itself requires the information. The information process does not depend on the relation between the NGO-s and institutions or Ministries but is the duty of the institutions to give the appropriate information, and/or when is not present or accessible, they should explain the reasons, in accordance with the Law, or point out the possible source for the required information, within 45 days.
Nearly a month ago, at the end of a project DFID, John W. Bennett organized a discussion between some NGO-s and representatives of the Ministry of the Environment, at the MoE facilities itself, regarding the measures to be undertaken by the decision-making institutions in order to increase the capacities to develop good public relationship. Malfunction of this relationship was noticed even in the number of the NGO-s presented in that meeting, only four of them, but that also expressed their displeasure, emphasizing the fact that “…in most of the cases there is an acute lack of information from the MoE, but even when the information is given, it is incomplete and very often useless…” This is the only case that directly denounces the “cramps” that the ministry personnel suffers from when people knock at their doors to be informed, but also the journalists confirm that they don’t get the information required according to legal procedures even after the 45 days time-period expires, time during which every institution is obliged to give an adequate legal answer. Are there other cases? Sure, a lot. Lets recall the “Memorandum of Understanding” signed in May 2003 between the Ministry of the Environment and the Environmental NGO-s, on coordination of activities in the field of environmental protection. Although it has no real executive power, it was considered a good step forward at that time, but to understand how the ministry coordinates its activities we have to make a flash-back at the 5-th of June 2005, “The International Environmental Day”. All over the world, activities were launched by environmental organizations financed by the respective ministries. According to the information that our Ministry gave, during that day there were no activities specifying or emphasizing “The International Environmental Day”. As it seems they were very busy on an important campaign as it could be the one for the elections of the 3-d of July. Even if the ministry has a special budget for the environmental calendar and celebration days, like “Earth Day” and “The International Environmental Day”, the NGO-s “manage” to never get that information as it gets lost in the Ministry’s channels of communication and decision making. The information easily accessible is that no projects were financed to solve the acute problems of our cities like the green areas. In Tirana the only “factory” that can clean the over-polluted air, is the green of plants. The only activity organized by the ministry for that day, was “The Conference for the Marine Environment”, that in reality was not related with the estimated real problems of the environment. This fact shows well enough the collaboration between the two main actors, Ministry and NGO sector working on the environment, in exchanging information and coordinating the activities. Is it normal now to look at this situation and wonder what would be the next mess in the relationship between the Ministry of the Environment and the NGO sector??? |
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