Description
Kosovo is in its early stages of meeting the required standards of the European Union (EU) acquis, in order to meet the integration process. The constant and rapid need of environmental laws in Europe has made the integration process even more demanding and challenging for Kosovo. This paper presents an analysis of the implementation of environmental legislation in Kosovo, based on EU standards. Through a comparative approach of some of the EU Commission reports of the recent years, national reports on the implementation of environmental provisions, such as the National Implementation Program of the Stabilization and Association Agreement, as well as reports of the Kosovo Environmental Protection Agency, this paper analyzes the progress that has been made. However, this paper also sheds light on the absence of implementation of EU standards in Kosovo, in order to fulfill the requirements of the last few years. Overall, findings show that the adaption of the environmental provisions based on EU standards has gradually made significant improvements in Kosovo’s journey to EU association. Yet, the partial implementation of EU standards into national environmental legislation highlights the necessary issues which need to be addressed, in order to meet the requirements based on the acquis within the given timeframes. This indicates that a lot remains far from being completed in regard to the approximation of Kosovo’s legislation with the EU acquis and reaching its implementation.
Chair
Stelios Tsiaras
Discussant
Tamara Popic & Giacomo Tagiuri
Session Type
Panel 1
Topic
Public Policy, Economy & Rights
Environmental Laws in Kosovo: Implementation of the SAA
Kosovo is in its early stages of meeting the required standards of the European Union (EU) acquis, in order to meet the integration process. The constant and rapid need of environmental laws in Europe has made the integration process even more demanding and challenging for Kosovo. This paper presents an analysis of the implementation of environmental legislation in Kosovo, based on EU standards. Through a comparative approach of some of the EU Commission reports of the recent years, national reports on the implementation of environmental provisions, such as the National Implementation Program of the Stabilization and Association Agreement, as well as reports of the Kosovo Environmental Protection Agency, this paper analyzes the progress that has been made. However, this paper also sheds light on the absence of implementation of EU standards in Kosovo, in order to fulfill the requirements of the last few years. Overall, findings show that the adaption of the environmental provisions based on EU standards has gradually made significant improvements in Kosovo’s journey to EU association. Yet, the partial implementation of EU standards into national environmental legislation highlights the necessary issues which need to be addressed, in order to meet the requirements based on the acquis within the given timeframes. This indicates that a lot remains far from being completed in regard to the approximation of Kosovo’s legislation with the EU acquis and reaching its implementation.
