[Waste management strategy and the role of the environmental protection and energy efficiency fund].

On 14 October 2005, the Croatian Parliament adopted the National Strategy of Waste Management pursuant to Article 8 of the Waste Act. This strategy defines its objectives and the means to reach them, and gives an overview of the current situation in waste management. It seeks to provide a realistic framework for the effective reduction of national waste load and for a sustainable waste management. This Strategy defines 15 major waste flows which are in concordance with the EU practice. It also defines waste management buildings and plants, and looks into the remediation of municipal waste landfills. According to the Strategy, waste management will be present on all levels of administration: from national to local, and will include all areas of production, consumption, and everyday life. Founded on the EU's general principles of waste management, this Strategy provides the ideal framework for a sustained waste management in Croatia by the year 2025. Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund is one of the key administration bodies within the waste management system. It collects taxes for motor vehicles, for sulphur and nitrogen oxide pollution sources, for environmental hazardous and non-hazardous industrial waste load, and for the use of the environment. The Fund participates in the ongoing municipal landfill remediation projects and programmes all over Croatia (currently 161 landfills are being remedied) and helps to establish new regional and county waste management centres. It co-finances clean production technology projects, projects whose aim is to reduce the emission of harmful gases, projects for reusable energy sources and for more efficient use of energy, projects for remediation of unregulated municipal landfills, projects for primary recycling, and projects for biodiversity landscapes. According to an estimate, the implementation of the National Strategy of Waste Management will cost over 24 billion Croatian kunas (about 3.3 billion Euros). Beside national and local revenues, the Fund will play a key role in carrying this burden.