From law-taking to policy-making. The environmental dimension of the EU accession process – challenges, risks and chances for the SEE countries

Abstract: This paper addresses the challenges and risks of an environmental enlargement strategy that has to rely on conditionality as a modus of operation. Such policy transfers generate shortcomings, which, in the case of the EU, might affect their future capacity to develop innovative environmental policy, if it enlarges. The paper begins with a short description of the challenges both from the EU's and the SEE countries' perspective. It highlights some of the newer, even stricter elements of the conditionality mode applied by the EU. It proceeds with an analysis of the risks of conditionality. In doing so, it outlines some of the lessons gleaned from the former enlargement process to Central and Eastern Europe, within which comparable experiences were made in unilaterally adjusting national law according to an agenda set by external actors. In the third section, the paper develops arguments with respect to handling these risks.