ABSTRACT

This chapter introduces some of the ingredients that appear to underlie successful environmental agreements (EAs), with a specific focus on the developments in Hungary in the early 1990s. After a brief overview of the industry-government negotiations on packaging waste management legislation, several key drivers of the negotiations process are introduced in Section 14.2. Each affected the negotiation in a different manner and left an imprint on the law that was adopted by the Hungarian parliament in June 1995. From the perspective of industry, several mistakes were made, which are explored in Section 14.3. Despite all good intentions on both sides, an undue focus on means to the detriment of establishing realistic environmental targets relevant to the Hungarian social, political and economic context prevented this EA from achieving its full potential. In conclusion, several recommendations on how to increase the likelihood of successful negotiations are provided.