Europeanization of Environmental Policy in the New Europe: Beyond Conditionality

Prior to the European Union (EU) 2004/2007 enlargement there were several predictions that this event would hamper progressive decision-making within the EU on environmental policy. It was believed that the new member states had adopted EU rules as a consequence of the EU's conditionality and consequently they would rather slow down the reform speed in the field after accession. In this book, Mats Braun offers an up-to-date account of how post-communist member states have handled policy initiatives in the field of environmental policy after accession. Using detailed case studies of how Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania dealt with two different EU policy initiatives - REACH and the Climate-Energy Package - he explores whether social norms and the process of socialization can help us understand why the track record of new member states in the area of environmental policy is more varied than was originally envisaged prior to enlargement.

Mats Braun is a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations in Prague and a lecturer at the Metropolitan University in the same city. He is a member of the Executive Council of the 'Central and East European International Studies Association' (CEEISA) and Editor-in-Chief of the journal 'Perspectives - Review of International Affairs'. He has recently published in the journals Journal of Common Market Studies and Cooperation and Conflict, among others. He is the author of the book Modernisation Unchallenged: the Czech Discourse on European Unity and co-editor of the book The Quest for the National Interest: a Methodological Reflection on Czech Foreign Policy (2010).