The Environment and Sustainable Development in the New Central Europe

With the enlargement of the European Union, the accession countries are coming under pressure to develop and meet EU standards for environmental protection and sustainable development. In this ongoing process, global economic liberalization, regulatory policy, conservation, and lifestyle issues are all involved, and creative solutions will have to be found. Historians, geographers, economists, ecologists, business management experts, public policy specialists, and community organizers have come together in this volume and examine, for the first time, environmental issues ranging from national and regional policy and macroeconomics to local studies in community regeneration. The evidence suggests that, far from being mere passive recipients of instruction and assistance from outside, the people of Central and East Central Europe have been engaged actively in working out solutions to these problems. Several promising cases illustrate opportunities to overcome crisis situations and offer examples of good practices, while others pose warnings. The experiences of these countries in wrestling with issues of sustainability continue to be of importance to policy development within the EU and may serve also as examples for both developed and developing countries worldwide.

With the enlargement of the European Union, the accession countries are coming under pressure to develop and meet EU standards for environmental protection and sustainable development. In this ongoing process, global economic liberalization, regulatory policy, conservation, and lifestyle issues are all involved, and creative solutions will have to be found. Historians, geographers, economists, ecologists, business management experts, public policy specialists, and community organizers have come together in this volume and examine, for the first time, environmental issues ranging from national and regional policy and macroeconomics to local studies in community regeneration. The evidence suggests that, far from being mere passive recipients of instruction and assistance from outside, the people of Central and East Central Europe have been engaged actively in working out solutions to these problems. Several promising cases illustrate opportunities to overcome crisis situations and offer examples of good practices, while others pose warnings. The experiences of these countries in wrestling with issues of sustainability continue to be of importance to policy development within the EU and may serve also as examples for both developed and developing countries worldwide.

List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors

Introduction: Legacies, Challenges, and New Beginnings
Zbigniew Bochniarz and Gary B. Cohen

Chapter 1. From Communism to Climate Change: The Sustainability Challenge and Lessons from Central Europe
Robert Wilkinson

Part I: The Environment as Policy Priority

Chapter 2. Assessing Sustainability of the Transition in Central European Countries: A Comparative Analysis
Sandra O. Archibald and Zbigniew Bochniarz

Chapter 3. Sustainability and EU Accession: Capacity Development and Environmental Reform in Central and Eastern Europe
Stacy D. VanDeveer and JoAnn Carmin

Chapter 4. Sustainability of Clusters and Regions at Austria’s Accession Edge
Edward M. Bergman

Part II: The Economics of Sustainable Development

Chapter 5. Greenhouse Gases Emissions Trading in the Czech Republic
Jirina Jilková and Tomás Chmelík

Chapter 6. Ecological Reform in the Tax System in Poland
Olga Kiuila and Jerzy S´leszynski

Part III: Water Policies and Institutions

Chapter 7. The Czech Republic: From Environmental Crisis to Sustainability
Václav Mezricky

Chapter 8. The Tisza/Tisa Transboundary Environmental Disaster: An Opportunity for Institutional Learning
Eszter Gulácsy, László Pintér, and Jim Perry

Chapter 9. Austria and the EU Water Framework Directive
Wilhelm R. Vogel

Chapter 10. The Western Bug River: UNECE Pilot Project
James B. Dalton, Jr.

Chapter 11. Wastewater Treatment in the Postcommunist Danube River Basin
Igor Bodík

Part IV: Agriculture and Rural Development

Chapter 12. “Thinking Unlike a Mountain”: Environment, Agriculture, and Sustainability in the Carpathians
Anthony J. Amato

Chapter 13. New Approaches to Sustainable Community Development in Rural Slovakia
Slavomíra Macáková

Chapter 14. Sustainable Development in Moravia: An Interpretation of the Role of the Small-Town Sector in Transitional Socioeconomic Evolution
Antonín Vaishar and Bryn Greer-Wootten

Chapter 15. Building Local Sustainability in Hungary: Cross-Generational Education and Community Participation in the Dörögd Basin
Judit Vásárhelyi

Select Bibliography
Index