Europos Sąjungos finansinės paramos panaudojimas vandens kokybės gerinimui Lietuvoje

Abstract

This MA thesis surveys the problems of water resources in the EU and Lithuania, the use of EU financial support in water sector, emphasizes the difficulties arising in the process of assimilation of financial support and perspectives of its use. Water protection is one of the most complicated spheres of environment protection policy, as EU raises extremely high requirements for this sector, while their implementation is difficult and demanding big investments. It is far more difficult to use the resources allocated for environment protection sector than transportation sector, for this reason it is necessary to constantly maintain monitoring, implement new, more modern, more productive and environment-friendly technologies. The bureaucratic model of assignation of funds is very complicated; the administrative institutions are young and lack proper experience for distributing EU funds. MA paper consists of three parts. The first chapter describes the problems of water resources in the EU and Lithuania. The problems arising in the water sector are named together with the reasons conditioning their appearance. The second chapter analysis the EU support during the preparation for membership and its use for solving the problems of water sector. The PHARE, ISPA, SAPARD support funds are evaluated together with the extent and use of their financial support to the water sector. The third one analysis the financial support in the sphere of water resource management after Lithuania getting the EU membership. The objectives and requirements of the general water policy directive and the advantages of water pool management principles are discussed. The paper analysis and evaluates the financial support and its use in water sector in currently active Cohesion fund, European regional development fund and LIFE program. The work pays greatest attention to the topic of water sector, analysis of EU support funding and survey of administration system and if we are craving for a proper and timely use of the financial support provided by the EU, we should create a mostly effective system of management. Recommendations are provided at the end of the work and they suggest effective ways of using the EU funds for the water protection sector.