WEIGHTING THE POLITICS OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEW EUROPE

EU membership imposes significant environmental pressures on the New Member states (NMS’s). This paper questions whether top down imposition of EU environmental regulation is the best strategy for the environmental problems of Central and Eastern Europe. While the emissions ’ record has greatly improved, it remains un-clear how much of this is directly related to EU membership. Sig-nificant costs are attached to fulfilling EU environmental criteria while remarkably smaller amounts of funding come attached to the EU membership agreement. Top-down imposition of environmental objectives may divert attention from local, regional and state level environmental needs, preferences and priorities. Accepting the man-tle of EU environmental policy means adopting a policy structure that, in many ways, is dominated by the interests and priorities of the large and more advanced EU Member states. The findings of this paper have significant implications for the lobbying activities of the NMS’s, for the weighting of the pollution burden in the New Europe and for future constitutional debates