Environment chapter’s cost the biggest concern

Earlier this week, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, chief EU negotiator and State Minister Egemen Bağış and Environment and Forestry Minister Veysel Eroğlu attended an intergovernmental conference in Brussels to launch negotiations on the environment chapter.

Turkey’s EU membership talks started in October 2005. Like other candidate countries, Turkey has to fulfill 35 policy negotiating areas, or chapters, to join the 27-nation bloc. Including the week-old environment chapter, Turkey and the EU have so far formally opened 12 chapters, of which only one chapter, science and research, has been concluded.

Just a year after negotiations started with Turkey, the EU froze eight chapters in 2006 because Turkey would not open its seaports and airports to Greek Cypriot vessels. France has blocked another five chapters, which have a direct link to full membership. In the latest EU summit, Greek Cyprus announced a plan to block talks on six other chapters.

Speaking to a group of journalists during a flight from Ankara to Brussels on Monday, Davutoğlu said the environment chapter is one of the most difficult chapters out of the 35 due to its extensive scope and high standards for compliance. “The opening of this chapter is a sign of Turkey’s determination to continue on the EU path,” Davutoğlu said.

A 400-page strategy paper on the environment chapter, prepared by 26 institutions and signed by 13 Cabinet members, estimates the cost of the chapter to be 58 billion euros. Two-thirds of the cost will be covered by state funds (35 billion euros), and the remainder will be paid by the private sector.

Speaking to Sunday’s Zaman, Kerem Ateş, secretary-general of the Turkish Environmental and Woodlands Protection Society, said the chapter is the most important step in Turkey’s EU membership talks. Discussing the public’s perception about the environment, Ateş said it is obvious that the negotiations will not be easy. “Due to Turkey’s low level of environmental protection, there will be long pauses, and negotiations will take more time than expected,” Ateş stated.

Commenting to Sunday’s Zaman on his ministry’s activities, Sedat Kadıoğlu, the deputy undersecretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, said the cost of the measures expected to be taken by the government and the private sector to close the environment chapter will be nearly 70 billion euros. It was previously announced that the cost of the project would be approximately 58 billion euros. However, projects related to noise pollution and package and industrial waste, among the most expensive, were not included in the cost estimates. In addition, the 58 billion euro price tag includes only projects to be completed by 2023, but there many more projects are to be implemented after this period.

Following the opening of the chapter, Turkey began work on a comprehensive estimate of the cost of projects necessary to conclude the chapter. The Environment and Forestry Ministry expects to spend 9.596 billion euros on investments in new technologies that will cause the least amount of damage to nature while eliminating waste.

The biggest share of the cost will be devoted to water. Investment in the water sector will be an estimated 33.969 billion euros. Every province and district will have clean drinking water. The quality of bodies of water where people swim will also be improved.

Trying to be more environmentally friendly is relatively a recent development for Turkey as it only established the Environment Ministry in 1991. Chemical pollution, particularly from detergents, in bodies of water is Turkey’s biggest environmental concern. The heavily contaminated Black Sea and air pollution caused by burning heating fuel, the large amount of cars and underdeveloped public transportation are also pressing environmental concerns. Considering the EU’s investments with respect to the environment, Ateş claimed that wrong moves on the part of Turkey would put the country in a bad position. “Planned dams and hydro-electric power plants will certainly damage the environment, and these are things that Turkey will be facing during the environment chapter talks,” Ateş noted.