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The Department manages the use of EU grants (Phare, ISPA, LIFE) for the environment sector, dealing with issues from programming and preparations to surveillance and assessment. The goal is ensuring that received aid be used in an effective, efficient and co-ordinated way, adhering to principles of environmental strategy and environmental action plan. Several prestructural funds, e.g., Phare, ISPA, SAPARD, but also the EC’s LIFE programme are currently at the disposal of candidate countries. The EU’s Structural Funds will be opened to them after accession. For the so-called prestructural measures, Phare and ISPA, up to now covering the lion’s share of all environmental grants, will, after Estonia’s accession to the EU, be transformed into the Harmonization Fund and Structural Funds accordingly. The Department is also engaged in preparing the environment sector to fulfil future requirements. To that end the Department participates in an administrative structure and capacity programme co-ordinated by the Ministry of Finance. The Department’s closest contacts outside the Ministry of the Environment are therefore the Ministry of Finance in charge of all foreign aid, Delegation of the European Commission, but also the Environmental Investment Centre, which manages the implementation of the ISPA projects. Since its estab lishment in the autumn of 2000, the Investment Department has participated in development of a number of projects, closely co-operating with other departments of the Ministry of the Environment, e.g., the Water and Waste Departments. This common effort has resulted in over 62 million Euros in grants to EU-approved environmental projects, mostly extensive ISPA projects. |
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