Montenegro

The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked NVE to assist with procurement of consultants’ services and quality assurance of the process, and with completion of the report.

Client: Ministry of Economy (ME) and Ministry of Spatial Planning and Environment (MSPE).

NVE Mandate: Assisting the ME with key aspects of the Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment (SEIA).

NVE Contract Value: MNOK 0.5, covering period September 2008 – April 2010 (including delay).

Type of Activities: Advice/ supervision and quality control on implementation of environmental studies for HPPs, with a subsequent hearing processes.

Work Completed 2010: Key outputs completed during project’s last year, 2010:

• Draft Final SEIA in February
• Public Consultation in March
• Final SEIA in December

Activities and Outputs:
A series of project activities has been undertaken during 2010:

• Clarification meeting in Oslo in January
• Submission of Draft Final SEIA in February
• Public Hearings in Montenegro during one week in March
• Clarification meeting in Montenegro in November
• Submission of Final SEIA in December

All project activities and contract obligations had been completed by the end of December, 2010.

Results/Outcome:
A full hearing process for the Draft SEIA Report has been carried out in Montenegro with consultation meetings both at local, regional and national levels.

This is the first time that such an extensive hearing process has been carried out in Montenegro for this type of report. The hearing process revealed the need for additional studies which will be conducted outside the scope of this contract.

The project is considered to be successful as the process has lead to improved understanding and enhanced competence of EU guidelines and practise for involved parties. This was achieved in part due to the process-oriented approach to services as adopted by NVE.