Part II: Country Reports

by Steven Stec

Introduction: A Note about the Country Reports

The information contained in the country reports was gathered through a process that took place over nearly two years. In early 1992, at a meeting of the REC Public Participation Working Group, the American Bar Association Central and East European Law Initiative (CEELI) agreed to cooperate with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to produce a survey of laws, regulations and practices concerning public participation in investment decisionmaking in Central and Eastern Europe. This cooperation resulted in a report published in July 1992. That report was the basis for an expanded CEELI project which received the support of the Soros Foundation (Institute for Constitutional and Legislative Policy), and resulted in the present cooperation with the REC. The initial information was gathered through use of a CEELI questionnaire directed at a cross-section of legal experts in each country and administered by the network of CEELI lawyers resident in the countries of the region. Comments were submitted by the legal expert members of the REC Public Participation Working Group, some of whom had been interviewed by the CEELI liaisons, and later the draft reports were supplemented and checked by persons chosen by the REC as Focal Points in each country. The author took every opportunity as it arose to seek input from other legal and environmental experts. The final drafts of the country reports, together with all other parts of the overall publication, were reviewed by the REC Public Participation project's editorial board.

Wherever possible official translations of legal texts have been used. Where official translations were not available, reliable unofficial translations have been used, and in some cases CEELI or the REC translated the texts. The country reports follow a basic format, but in recognition of the widely varied circumstances in each country there is some minor variation among them. They contain case studies of legal and non-formal mechanisms such as public actions, which have been checked for accuracy as much as possible in the limited time available. We have purposefully excluded some information from the case studies where information from a single source could not be confirmed.

In compiling detailed legal information on ten quite different countries we are grateful for the help of numerous contributors, who have worked very hard to correct our original attempts. Nevertheless, errors and omissions are bound to remain. The reader is requested to correct and supplement the information contained in the reports wherever possible and to submit such corrections and additions to the publisher, for the benefit of readers of future editions of this publication.

Acknowledgements

The Public Participation Research Project of the American Bar Association, Central and East European Law Initiative is an ongoing project. Additional country reports on the countries of the former Soviet Union will be published in the future.

Programmatic and in-kind support has been provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Institute for Constitutional and Legislative Policy, the office of the Chief Public Prosecutor of Hungary, and the REC.

The American Bar Association, Central and East European Law Initiative would like to acknowledge the valuable assistance of the following individuals, without whom the Public Participation Research Project would have been impossible:
Attila Hlavathy, Kalman Gyorgyi, Magdolna Toth Nagy, Janos Zlinszky, Peter Hardi, Stanislaw Sitnicki, Vladimir Hudek, Malgorzata Koziarek, Alexandru Savulescu, Ethan Klingsberg, Duc Trang, George Soros, Karel van der Zwiep, Miklos Persanyi, Margaret Bowman, Anna Vari, Jay Austin, Jan-Hendrik Leopold, Talbot D'Alemberte, Homer Moyer, Mark Ellis, Patricia Zinski, John Knechtle, Roland Bassett, Michael Froman, Nancy Goodman, William Meyer, Linda Foreman, Antonia Dolar, Lisa Dickieson, George Farrell, Vera Hartford, Bozena Sarnecka-Crouch, Robert Stark, Karen Connolly, Gregory Surman, Mark Dietrich, Jean Garland, Adam Shapiro, Sara Hagigh, Caroline West, Milena Rizova, Erinda Ballanca, Tanja Temelkoska, Boyko Dimitrachkov, Daniel Kelemen, Linda Hagner, Niyanta Thomas, Lyupka Dimovska, Zsuzsanna Biro, Maria Krach, Ilona Csjerni.

We would like to give special acknowledgement to those individuals who gave comments and expert assistance in the production of the Country Reports:
Vasil Bendo, Fatos Lulo, Simeon Bozhanov, Vanja Grigorova, Alexander Kodjabashev, Meglena Kuneva, Liliana Maslarova, Elena Petkova, Branko Barbic, Goran Granic, Inge Perko-Separovic, Gordana Valcic, Jiri Dusik, Petr Kuzvart, Svatomir Mlcoch, Gyula Bandi, Sandor Fulop, Robert Reininger, Mihail Dimovski, Jelena Dimitrijevic, Aslan Selmani, Nikola Srbinoski, Josif Tanevski, Simeon Televski, Jerzy Jendroska, Piotr Syryczynski, Stanislaw Wajda, Barna Bartha, Dumitru Popescu, Michaela Popovici, Mary Arndtsen, Danka Jassikova, Barbara Vrecko.

Many others too numerous to mention contributed as well. We apologize for any omissions from the list.

REC * PUBLICATIONS * MANUAL ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION * COUNTRY REPORTS * INTRODUCTION