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An environmental frontrunner in the Central and Eastern European regions since the late 1990s, Hungary followed a gradual but steady approximation progress to the EU environmental legislation. Previous research established an important role of the participation of economic and societal stakeholders in the decision-making and implementation process based on EU environmental legislation in Hungary. With the victory of the FIDESZ party in the parliamentary elections of 2010, the new government started to change the 'rules of the game' by nationalising infrastructures and weakening market access to foreign stakeholders. Focusing on the water and waste management sectors, the article analyzes the stages that brought Hungary to the recent governments' policy changes. We argue that these changes have departed from the environmental policy practices established during the EU accession process and represent a challenge and a potential backsliding in the implementation of the EU environmental legislation in Hungary. Such changes in policy policies need to be seen in the context of the recent transformation of the political order and of the state–market relations in Hungary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution examines what joining the European Union implies for Hungary's waste policies and waste practices. After providing a short overview of waste policies under state socialism, I analyse the differences between the waste structure and waste practices of Hungary and the EU. Using interviews and document analysis, this contribution demonstrates that the EU has been sending mixed messages to Hungary. On the one hand, it demands preventative waste policies; on the other hand, it promotes end-of-pipe technologies through aid, temporary exemptions, and EU-constituent corporations that enter the Hungarian market. Overall, compared to the state socialist past, the European Union represents a certain regression to the extent that waste-prevention and recovery are ignored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As 10 new members prepare to join the European Union in May 2004, this article analyses and clarifies the major issues and outcomes of the enlargement process from the environmental legal viewpoint, the so-called green accession, for Hungary. Following a general description of the enlargement process the author describes Hungary's process for approximation to the EC environmental accession acquis and the accession talks; then highlights potential problems for enforcement at a regional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]