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Analysts have mainly painted a gloomy picture of the consequences of enlargement for EU environmental policy. Enlargement is widely expected to protract decision-making and widen the implementation gap. In this paper, we first specify and the arguments and logic behind the gloomy expectations. Second, we confront these arguments with empirical evidence from three issue-areas: air pollution, GMOs and climate change. The main concusion is that the consequences of enlargement vary between issue-areas. Air pollution indicates status quo, climate change som unfortunate consequences whereas the new memebr-states have strengthened EU's restrictive policy on GMOs somewhat. The paper then goes on to discuss why there is a mismatch between expectations and empirical observations. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]