Dear Minister Dr. Umek, Mr. Slokar, State Secretary, Dr. Wiegering General Secretary of EEAC, dear other members of EEAC, members of Councils of the CEE countries, members of Council of Environment Protection of Republic of Slovenia, respectable guests, ladies and gentlemen.

We are living in conditions, in which environmental problems are sharpened, yet other events push the concern for nature preservation and human health aside (oil crisis, human rights, pure economy in some developing countries and others). Affected people are disturbed because of harmful occurrences, while others must be warned and enlightened not only about risks and dangers that are intruding our lives, but also about consequences for our community. At first sight, we are living in a beautiful countries and we can pride ourselves upon numerous landmarks and natural values, however there are dead waters in between, endangered plants and animals, countless refuse dumps, degraded environment and sad memories on fringes of cities and villages.

Nature has its laws of growth, renewal and reposing, which are so tightly-knit, time and spatially arranged, that the whole living world is complete and permanent. People are a part of living nature also. Therefore out relation to nature must be reasonable, meaning we have to harmonise our social developmental laws with natural sources and laws. This is never easy, especially since occurrences are unravelling in spatial reality of a certain living environment or a specific country. We ought to respect proprietorial rights and market influences and centralised tracing of happenings and progress. Furthermore, harmful phenomena in environment must be fought against. These problems are solvable on the basis of objective evaluations of occurrences and conditions, experts' knowledge and ethic and legal environmental principles. Likewise, lest we forget internationally accepted obligations.

The communes in many countries, have little ability to master the environmental problems. Environmental legislation is not completed, therefore the monitoring of the environment and preventive measures too. The lack of physical planning already inhibits the development of towns.

The discussions of the phenomena protection, economical and developmental possibilities in entire CEE region needs to take into account the co-influence of local, regional and global components of biotic and physical natural factors.

The circumstances and environmental problems in Slovenia require co-operation and harmonisation of the assignments between communes and regional authorities. The solution of certain problems requires the co-operation of the state and neighbouring countries. Environmental legislature and regulations are incomplete. New modernised legislation of water, sea protection, nature protection and physical planning is needed to determine environmental and developmental assignments and enable the elimination of harmful influences. The regional parks should be designed and established as soon as possible; at the same time, the water and other natural resources as well as cultural heritage need to be protected. The harmonisation of laws and standards with the European Union decreases the lag. We have to remember the role of NGO, science and mass media to strengthen the environmental consciousness of people.

Slovenia should invite its neighbour states to co-operate in environmental programs, research projects and higher education. Through goal-oriented programs, the environmental research projects required by the law for environmental protection and the regulations of the European Union should be completed as soon as possible. The Slovenian Environmental Protection Council should play important role as a mediator used EAC as source of experience from different European councils.

To improve this state also with other EEC countries, we organise meeting at Bled to get answer how can co-operation between EEAC and Environmental Council from EEC countries be strengthened, and how the EEAC network could support our activities and to evaluate possibility that EEC countries become an associated or even active members of EEAC.

Thank you