European Union funds as financial source for development of public water pipes and canalization
Seminar
Within the 14th year of international exhibition of water economy, hydroenergetics and protection of environment called Aqua which was held in Trenčín the Cebtire company, s.r.o. as a provider of project. Professionl assistance for slovak regional woterworks companies on June 20, 2007 prepared seminar called “ European Union funds as financial source for development of public water pipes and canalization.“
We organized this seminar because of:
- seminar was one of the goals of this project „European Union funds as financial source for development of public water pipes and canalization“ which fit into the topic of exhibition because mainly suppliers of woterworks comapnies were presented
- Aqua exhibition is a traditional place where representatives of Ministry of the environment of Slovak republic, Regulatory office for network industries, reginal and district offices of environment, suppliers, waterworks companies and also represenatives of towns and villages can meet. All of them participate on creation of appropriate envirimnent where woterworks sector works.
- the topic of “European union funds“ is now very popular becasue nowadays almost all decisions about how the next programming period will be realized are made. This period is very importatnt for waterworks engineering because years 2010 and 2015 are crucial deadlines for the accomplishment of all obligations which for Slovak republic arise from accession treaty with European Union.
Seminar was mainly adressed to managemnt of woterworks companies, representatives of towns and villages, experts of project department of waterworks comapies but also the visitors of the Aqua exhibition were welcomed.
The main goal of the seminar was to provide all the participants with useful information about the posibilities and conditions of using of fund of European Union as a financial source for the development of public waterpipes and canalization in the period of years 2007 – 2013. Presence of 80 participants show how big the interest of this topic is.
Program of the seminar was created to mediate the idea that the key point for accomplishment of every vision of each waterworks company, it means permanent increase of the level of services, is preparation of clear and fnancially safe strategy for the implementation of sustainable development of waterworks infrastructure in accordance with legal regulations of European Union and Slovak republic. One of the financial sources can be the European Union funds.
Content of lectures:
Ing. J. Kleinertova in her lecture analysed the categories as investment, its position as priority of strategy for sustentation of business, proportion of property reconstruction and development, sustainable projects developmnet, efficiency or recoverability of capital. There was also a discusion about the function and activity of project departments by accomplisment of these tasks.
Ing. Martin Dudák in his contribution looked at the investments as a company’s finances. He compared the differences between the attitude of waterworks companies with the attitudes of other entrepreneurs and network divisions. According to M. Dudák the biggest problem is disproportion between investment demands and generated profits of waterworks companies in comparioson with other businesses. Sustainable financing can be provided only by appropriate combination of four financial sources:
- by own capital, e.g. investment of shareholders and sources created by the company
- debt financing, e.g. by credit and bonds
- grants, endowments, funds, e.g. state budget, EU; within longterm competency the waterworks comapnies should realized that the sector should be independently financed without the endowment from EU or state or other financial sources
- PPP projects, e.g. by the way of Build-operate-Take (BOT) – when the financing cannot be provided by the combination of above mentioned financial sources, management should think about this option. Structure should be chosen according to the structure of assets, expenses and profits and also the effort to minimalize the price of the capital should be performed.
Technical aspects of the change of approach to the agglomeration production (Ing. E. Rajczykova’s contribution) amended this issue because they should be used as allowance in the sewage cleaning in accordance with 91/271/EHS directive. Plans for development of public waterworks and canalization are still in practise. In these plans another approach for the creation of agglomeration was presented, Department of environment of Slovak republic should specify and determine clear and transparent rules for providing of subsidies of European union funds for development of public water pipes and canalization. When new approach for creation of agglomerations will be fully applied than possibilities of connection for small villages within the agglomerations will decrease and so demands for the level of cleanliness of sewage will also decrease and it will not be in accordance with the need of implantation of European union directives especially Convention on water. When the possibilities for acceptance of projects will not be reached in these days so the projects they will have to be readjusted and waterworks companies will lost a lot of finance which they had invested in.
During the event there were a lot of complaints about insufficient financial sources for investments for the development of public water pipes and canalization.
T. Szőke lecture was also included into the program of the seminar. He informed the participants about how the European union funds can be also used for other activities and also about the direct develompment of waterworks infrastructure. This lecture makes clear all possibilities of use of european means in the field of education, renewable energy sources, research, develompent and inovation and quality management.