Transnational Politics of the Environment: The European Union and Environmental Policy in Central and Eastern Europe (review)

It has become accepted wisdom that the lure of EU membership provides a powerful incentive for Central and East European (CEE) countries to bring their environmental laws and practices into conformity with EU standards and that differences in the speed and extent to which the CEE countries adopt these standards may be traced largely to divergence in their post-communist political institutions. In Liliana Andonova's meticulously researched and documented study, however, she seeks to look beyond these common expectations to expose the diversity in outcomes and the need to explore factors beyond institutional politics to understand these differences. The book focuses on three key cases: the Czech Republic, Poland, and Bulgaria. It explores the impact of the EU accession process on two very different industrial sectors in these societies, the chemical and electricity industries. The result is a beautifully structured comparative study that bridges domestic and international approaches, and brings in a much needed focus on the role of affected industries in promoting or impeding the process of environmental harmonization in the CEE countries during the 1990–2000 period.

The book is organized into three parts: an introduction to the project and detailed discussion of the theoretical approach; a comparative analysis of the evolution and implementation of chemical safety regulations across the Czech Republic, Poland, and Bulgaria; and a parallel comparative study focusing on air quality regulations and the role of the electricity industry in shaping domestic air pollution legislation across the three CEE cases. The study is concise and well-written, making it accessible for use in advanced undergraduate and graduate classes. It is the depth of the study, however, that makes it of significant value to scholars and policy-makers trying to understand the reality of the impact of EU accession on environmental processes in Central and Eastern Europe. While many scholars have discussed the general impact of EU accession on environmental legislation in the region, few have delved into the dynamics of the harmonization process at the country and sectoral level and provided solid data and interpretation of what has been happening on the ground. Andonova's study fills an important gap in the literature and should stimulate more scholarly investigations into the dynamics of the process across multiple countries and industrial sectors.

Andonova's theoretical framework is simple yet powerful in explaining the observed outcomes across countries and industrial sectors. Rather than focusing on the role of domestic political institutions, she focuses on the reaction of domestic industrial actors to the requirements of EU harmonization. As the introduction notes, "EU integration . . . affects the perceived costs and benefits of environmental regulation, as well as the strategic options of industrial actors to influence regulation through three related mechanisms: international market incentives, transnational organizations, and governmental commitments to international rules" (p. 12). A determining factor in the role of industry actors in the harmonization process is whether the industrial sector depends heavily on export to EU countries and hopes to reap the benefits of compatible standards and free trade (as in the chemical industry) or is more oriented toward domestic markets and sees more costs than benefits in adopting EU standards (as in the electricity sector). Transnational business associations also may be key actors promoting harmonization when they view inequities in standards as creating competitive disadvantages for West European EU members. This factor is particularly important in export-oriented sectors such as the CEE chemical industries, but much less so in the electricity sector in the 1990s.

Andonova also examines government commitment to international rules and, more particularly, to harmonization with EU environmental standards. She agrees that political institutions and interest group politics are important in shaping government commitment to the environmental harmonization process, and highlights three institutional factors: "the veto position of regulated actors, the capacity for interest mediation and compensation, and the strength of environmental movements" (p. 20). This examination of the government's commitment to international rules...