Agri-environmental policy systems in transition and preparation for EU membership

Since the early 1990s, the development of agri-environmental policy in the Central and Eastern European Countries has had to respond to the needs arising from the legacies of communist regimes and to the challenges of complying with the EU environmental acquis. Previous assessments of agri-environmental problems in the region have focused almost exclusively on problems stemming from intensification and the inefficiencies of central planning. This is an inadequate characterisation and ignores problems that may derive from small-scale production and inappropriate farm management practices. Case study findings highlight that transition, by increasing the number of holdings and policy stakeholders, has increased the complexity of policy systems in a period of falling real budgets for administrative bodies. Nevertheless the evolution of the environmental policy system, institution building and administrative reform induced by the preparation for EU Membership has been shaped by the specific historic trajectories of the each of CEECs. This may lead to varying impacts of Europeanisation on the CEECs. However, certain commonalities and convergences can also be observed among the acceding countries arising from the nature of the membership negotiation process.