ABSTRACT
As the states of central and eastern Europe queue up at the door of the European Union, eager for admission to what they see as the guarantor of their future peace and prosperity, a host of issues are jostling for priority in the accession process. In the midst of this mêlée the environment has been rather marginalized as an issue (despite obligatory homage paid to it in European Union documents), displaced primarily by concern for economic issues. However, we should not too quickly forget the fact that at the time of the disintegration of the “ancien régimes” in central and eastern Europe in 1989 the environment was widely seen —by both domestic and international interested parties-as one of the most urgent problems facing the region.
