ANKARA - The 'Project for Planning of High-Cost Environment Investments' which is considered as one of the most important projects of environment sector in European Union (EU) accession process will be initiated on Tuesday.
Releasing a statement on Monday, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry said that the start would be given to the 'Program on Capacity Improvement in Environment Field in Turkey' which is one of the prior and most important projects of the environment sector, and to its most important component 'Project for Planning of High-Cost Environment Investment' after joint press conference of Environment and Forestry Minister Osman Pepe and EU Commission Representative in Turkey Hans Jorg Krestchmer on Tuesday.
The project will be conducted by a consortium that was formed by expert organizations in Turkey, Denmark, Lithuania, Hungary and Holland. The EU Commission Representation in Turkey supports the project that has a 5.8 million Euro budget.
Under the project, investments which should be made to fulfil 20 directive conditions covering water, air, solid waste and industrial pollution sectors that are known as 'EU High-Cost Environment Investment Directives', will be determined and planned together with their financing sources. Thus priority list of investments in environment sector in Turkey will be made and the necessary financing strategy will be developed.
After completion of feasibility studies, reports on effects on environment and engineering studies for six projects to be chosen among the priority list, auction documents will be prepared. This work can be presented to the EU and other international finance organizations and project packages will be prepared as a model to other investments.
Most important goals of the project are development of the capacity of the personnel working in environment sector to prepare projects in EU norms, harmony with the EU and implementation. With this objective, 160 personnel will be given proper training in Turkey and abroad.
An investment program of nearly 30 billion euro is expected to start after finalization of this project for adaptation of high-cost environment investments to the EU standards.
(MS-AY) 19.01.2004