A CONFIDENTIAL report prepared by the European Commission has identified environmental pollution as the most pressing problem facing politicians trying to integrate East Germany into the European Community after German unification. It says massive investment will be needed to ease East Germany's transition to a market economy, but until then, some dirty plants may have to be exempted from Community pollution rules.
The large East German chemicals industry is still based on coal, notes the commission. Some operations, especially those using brown coal, are too dirty to be adapted to legal limits for pollution in the Community, and, says the commission, will have to be closed down as a consequence.
Until then, they will have to be exempted from Community pollution regulations for a 'transitional' period. Because of the social dislocations that could result from plant closures, such 'derogations' could in some cases be 'long term', says the report.