Selective Adoption of EU Environmental Norms in Ukraine. Convergence á la Carte

Abstract

While the EU's policies towards non-member states are often discussed within frameworks of ‘high politics’, one of the most important features of the European Neighbourhood Policy is its emphasis on the ‘low politics’ of sectoral dialogue in functionally differentiated policy fields. Examining policy change triggered in Ukraine by the EU's neighbourhood policy framework, the essay focuses on environmental policy as a typical ‘low politics’ policy field. The results show that in four sub-fields of environmental policy case-specific constellations of domestic veto players, policy-specific conditionality and external capacity building determine domestic policy change.

Notes

The author would like to thank the two anonymous referees, as well as Tanja Börzel and Julia Langbein for their helpful comments.

¹ See also Ademmer and Börzel, in this collection.

² See Ademmer and Börzel, and Langbein in this collection.

³ For explanations of different forms of compliance, see the Introduction to this collection.

⁴ See Ademmer and Börzel, and Langbein in this collection.

⁵ Author's interview with a desk officer in the Directorate General for the Environment of the European Commission, 7 March 2011, Brussels.

⁶ ‘Calm and Civilised, Like a Dog’, ENPI-INFO Series: Perceptions of the EU in Neighbourhood Partner Countries, available at: http://www.enpi-info.eu/files/interview/a110070_ENPI_Ukraine%28EUprcptns%29EASTen.v.3.pdf, accessed 20 September 2011.

⁷ CEE Bankwatch, ‘No EU Millions for Ukraine's Carbon-heavy Environment Strategy’, available at: http://bankwatch.ecn.cz/project.shtml?apc = —a–1&x = 2259840, accessed 20 September 2011.

⁸ Author's interview with desk officer in the Directorate General for the Environment of the European Commission, 7 March 2011, Brussels.

⁹ The ratio (index) of CO₂ emissions per GDP unit for Ukraine is 7,483 metric tons of CO₂ per $1 million of GDP, vis-à-vis the world average of 846 and the European average of 640.

¹⁰ It was renamed the State Agency of Environmental Investments in 2010.

¹¹ Global Compact Ukraine, Third Ukrainian Business Summit on Climate Change: Energy in Focus, available at: http://www.globalcompact.org.ua/press/news/431, accessed 20 September 2011. ‘The State Environmental Investment Agency Signed a Cooperation Agreement with the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs’, available at: http://www.neia.gov.ua/nature/control/en/publish/article;jsessionid = EB0F50A48699E5BA3F8B0285B5A4A4AE?art_id = 124901&cat_id = 42452, accessed 20 September 2011.

¹² Author's interview (via e-mail), Ukrainian environmental NGO, 22 March 2011.

¹³ ‘Tymoshenko Charged with Misspending’, Financial Times, 20 December 2010.

¹⁴ ‘Yulia Tymoshenko Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison’, The Guardian, 11 October 2011.

¹⁵ The ‘Füle Matrix’ is a document presented by the EU Commissioner Štefan Füle in Kyiv on 22 April 2010. The plan previews implementation of concrete measures, aimed at attracting macro-financial assistance from the EU, improving access for Ukrainian goods to the European markets and reforming the technical regulation system.

¹⁶ ‘Letter from Iryna Holovko to José Manuel Pinto Teixeira, Head of European Commission Delegation in Ukraine’, CEE Bankwatch, available at: http://www.necu.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/bwn_letter_ukraine_bs_10-10.pdf, accessed 20 September 2011.

¹⁷ ‘Ukraine's Environment Strategy Worrying Brussels’, EUobserver, available at: http://euobserver.com/9/30887, accessed 20 September 2011.

¹⁸ Author's interview (by e-mail), Ukrainian environmental NGO, 12 March 2011.

¹⁹ Zakon Ukrainy, No. 2818, adopted 21 December 2010.

²⁰ ‘The Secretariat of Cabinet Ministers of Ukraine Rewrote the National Environmental Plan’, MAMA-86, available at: http://www.mama-86.org.ua/index.php/en/ecologization/ecointegration-news/263-neap.html, accessed 20 September 2011.

²¹ It was renamed the State Agency of Water Resources (Derzhvodahentstvo) in 2010.

²² ‘OSCE Holds Second Roundtable on Water Management in Ukraine’, available at: http://www.osce.org/ukraine/54862, accessed 20 September 2011.

²³ See http://www.ecbsea.org and http://www.wgw.org.ua, last accessed 19 April 2011.

²⁴ Mott MacDonald, ‘Water Governance in the Western EECCA Countries’, Tacis/2008/137–153 (EC) Project Completion Report, available at: http://www.wgw.org.ua/publications/Water%20Governance_Project%20Completion%20Report_Final.pdf, accessed 20 September 2011.

²⁵ German Water Partnership, Regional Section Ukraine, available at: http://www.germanwaterpartnership.de/index.php?option = com_content&view = article&id = 461&Itemid = 226&lang = en, accessed 20 September 2011.

²⁶ Author's interview with desk officer in the Directorate General for the Environment of the European Commission, 7 March 2011, Brussels.

²⁷ Author's interview (via e-mail), Ukrainian environmental NGO, 28 September 2011.

²⁸ Zakon Ukrainy, No. 3038 of 17 February 2011, available at: http://zakon2.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/3038-17, accessed 15 November 2012.

²⁹ ‘Outcomes of the 4th Meeting of Parties to the Aarhus Convention’, Resource and Analysis Center ‘Society and Environment’, available at: http://www.rac.org.ua/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/weekly_reviews/ENG/05_07_2011_Aarhus_MOP4_ENG.pdf, accessed 20 September 2011.

³⁰ ‘EU Support to Ukraine to Implement the ESPOO and AARHUS Conventions’, 30 July 2010, available at: http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/ukraine/press_corner/all_news/news/2010/20100730_1_en.htm, accessed 20 September 2011.

³¹ For a discussion of this problem in the context of Central and East European states, see Dimitrova (2010).