Environmental policy transformation in the Czech Republic and Poland, 1990-2000

Transformation and Development of Environmental Policy in Eastern Europe: A Comparative Study of Policy Changes in the Czech Republic and Poland during the Transition Period from 1990-2000

The transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia affect more than 400 million people. The transition economies in Europe include 26 nations; of these, 15 independent countries were formed following the collapse of the former Soviet Union; six European countries were created by the Council on Mutual Economic Assistance including the Czech Republic and Poland); and five countries were created from the dissolution of Yugoslavia (Chandler 2000, 1-2). Several decades of centralized state-managed industrial development had largely ignored the enormous impact of their decision-making processes and policies on the environment of these transition economies, including the Czech Republic and Poland, and the results were easy for all to see. According to Chandler, "The region's cities in the early 1990s were a bleak industrial landscape. Children played in soot-choked residential streets built alongside giant steel and coking operations, chemical plants, and unfiltered power stations. In some areas, the skies were filled with particulates, carcinogenic benzopyrene, acid mist, arsenic, and antimony" (2000, 2). A study by Toman (1994) confirmed that although the largest contributors to the air pollution problem in the Czech Republic and Poland have been the result of industrial emissions rather than automobile and other vehicular traffic based on the average numbers of vehicles owned by the citizens of these countries compared to other countries in Western Europe, the vehicles that were in use in these two countries were nevertheless significant contributor to air pollution because of their age, lack of emission controls, their operation on highly polluting sulfur-laden fuels and poor maintenance. Moreover, because many urban areas in Poland and the Czech Republic have historically been located on or near the waterways running through these nations in transition, the environmental impact was particularly pronounced. For instance, Chandler emphasizes that, "Rivers carried refinery waste and sewage; some carried radiation" (2000, 2). Both the Czech Republic and Poland are also characterized by industries which are well documented in contributing to higher levels of air pollution. For instance, Carter and Turnock (2002) report that, "The Czech Republic and Poland are excessively scarred by major energy sectors, particularly evident through large coal-mines (both shaft mines and open pit workings) and generating capacities" (5). Although there was some progress made in reducing the effluence and discharge levels following 1990, these reductions were more attributable to lessened demand for the products being manufactured by these facilities rather than any substantive effort to clean up and remediate the industrial sites responsible for the pollution. According to Pavlinek and Pickles (2000), "The paralyzing financial crises and economic collapse that have accompanied transformation in several reforming countries, and the changes to legal, economic and political systems, have had important consequences for environmental conditions" (2000, 7).

These important consequences have included a paucity of resources available for environmental remediation or for new investments in non-polluting and more efficient technologies; in spite of a wide range of environmental laws and institutions having been implemented in the European Union in recent years, many transition economies have lacked the resources needed to conform to these policies (Pavlinek & Pickles, 2000). In this regard, Chandler concludes that, "The environmental situation has improved but often as a result of economic depression, and human health conditions have deteriorated dramatically in some areas" (2000, 2). Likewise, Pavlinek and Pickles emphasize that in some transition economies, the only improvements in emissions have been the result of diminished industrial production rather than any substantive efforts by the nations themselves to effect changes. "In many of the most polluting and dangerous industries," Pavlinek and Pickles write, "economic crises have resulted in the shutting down or at least cutting back of operations which, in itself, has substantially improved environmental conditions in some locales" (7). Indeed, Pavlinek and Pickles attribute much of the success of the former Soviet states in challenging centralized control that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 to a concerted effort to reverse the impact that these state-run policies had on their environments and the health of their citizens. According to Pavlinek and Pickles, "In this sense, challenges to state policies found their most direct expression through the movements for ecological resistance which emerged to oppose the ravages of the environment and the health of the population under state socialism" (2000, 7). Taken together, it is apparent that both the Czech Republic and Poland were faced with some profound environmental problems as they entered the transition period from 1990 to 2000 following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 and it is equally apparent that both of these countries have managed to achieve improvements in ways that have been difficult for other similarly situated countries to emulate. These achievements have been due in large part to the ability of the governments of the Czech Republic and Poland to marshal their available resources in effective ways in addressing their environmental problems. Their success, too, is due in large part to the commitment on the part of policymakers in these two countries to "clean up their act." In this regard, Carter and Turnock emphasize that, "These countries also have a superior capacity for handling their problems, reflecting their ability to identify and resolve environmental problems on the basis of technology and financial resources but also legislation and enforcement regimes plus a political culture with institutions to ensure that issues are raised, alternative solutions discussed and with cooperation forthcoming in respect of agreed strategies" (6). Moreover, the Czech Republic and Poland enjoy the advantage of being capable of producing their own pollution control equipment in ways that have contributed to their full integration into the EU (Carter & Turnock 2002).

Clearly, then, the driving forces for Poland and the Czech Republic to improve their environmental standards after the collapse of communism in 1989 during the transition period of 1990-2000 from a central planning to market-base economies were based on a number of factors, including the overriding need to reduce the adverse impact of these environment degradations on the health of their citizenry. There were other compelling forces at work, though, that made the improvement of these countries' environmental standards a high priority as well. For example, Madeo emphasizes that countries such as the Czech Republic and Poland are well poised to enjoy the benefits of increased trade and integration into the European Union (EU) and international community but these nations also face profound environmental problems that were required to be addressed before full membership in the EU would be granted. In this regard, Madeo notes that, "The Czech Republic possesses a level of social and economic development that is beyond that of a typical developing nation. At the same time, however, it must recover from forty years of socialist policies to join the modern world trading system" (1995, 945). Therefore, this study examines the process and importance of the Czech Republic and Poland becoming fully integrated into European markets through membership in the EU membership and the process involved in that accession.

2.

Significance of the Study

The significance of membership in the European Union and complete integration into the political, social and economic benefits that this membership provides cannot be overstated, particularly for the transition economies of Eastern Europe that involve hundreds of millions of people but which remain mired in the past in many ways. Indeed, Poland is the most populous of the former Soviet states and the Czech Republic is an important agricultural producer that the members of the EU desperately need. In early 2003, the European Parliament approved resolutions that granted accession to ten European applicant states that would allow them to become full members of the EU by mid-2004 (Medvec 2009). These resolutions were the result of several conferences, summits and agreements that had been forged over the period of an entire decade, including the European Agreements in 1991, the Copenhagen Summit in 1993, the Corfu Summit and Essen Summit in 1994, the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997, and the Nice Treaty of 2001 (Medvec 2009). All of these conferences, summits and agreements required the Czech Republic and Poland, together with the other eight applicant states, to satisfy the following criteria before full membership in the EU would be granted:

1. Develop functioning market economies;

2. Demonstrate respect for the rule of law and human rights;

3. Adhere to the entire range of EU laws and policies (acquis communautaire), including the customs union, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), single-market laws and regulations, competition policies, as well as social and environmental policies; and,

4. Join the common currency system, or euro, of the European Monetary Union (Medvec 2009.

Following their associate membership status in the EU in 1991 pursuant to the European Agreements, Poland and the Czech Republic were initially required to demonstrate a willingness to achieve the foregoing criteria by providing evidence of their commitment to economic and political reform, including economic liberalization, the rule of law, human rights, multi-party systems, and fair elections (Medvec 2009). Thereafter, Poland and the Czech Republic were required to provide evidence concerning their compliance with the requirement to improve their commitment to environmental standards as well (Medvec 2009).

Both Poland and the Czech Republic were successful in satisfying the EU's leadership of their commitment to full integration by providing evidence of their commitment to improving their track record on environmental issues and achieved membership in the EU in 2004; in fact, the Czech Republic even assumed the presidency of the EU in 2009 (Medvec 2009). Both Poland and the Czech Republic have also become more fully integrated into the EU in other ways as well, including a transition from their former status as members of the Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact to become members in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1999 (Medvec 2009). Despite these achievements, both Poland and the Czech Republic are still confronted with a number of constraints to their continuing economic development and disparities in income levels became even more pronounced in these two countries during the transition period from 1990 to 2000 (Mcintyre 2001).

3.

Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study is to demonstrate the fundamental importance of Europeanization on environmental policy-making development in both the Czech Republic and Poland in tandem with other economic policymaking initiatives that have focused on the environment as a top priority in their transformation and the reasons for these initiatives. To achieve this objective, the study provides an analysis concerning how, in their capacity as some of the most flagrant polluters in Eastern Europe, the Czech Republic and Poland changed their policy-making processes and how these changes contributed to improvements in environmental quality with a specific focus on air pollution in the region. By researching journals, articles, policies and media pieces from each time period of analysis, this study provides valuable new insights into the political, economic and social changes that have taken place in Eastern Europe during the transition period from 1990 to 2000 and how they have impacted the EU and new members' integration into a rapidly growing global economy.

4.

Introduction

The EU enlargement process includes embracing of the free-market system has had some very deep political, social and environmental consequences for these former Communist states. This chapter will review theories on European integration and internationalization and how they are related to the objective of this study.

Economic Reform, Investment and Psychic Distance

It is clear that market forces have played a major role in many of the sweeping changes, including significantly improved environmental standards, that have been implemented by Poland and the Czech Republic in an effort to become more fully integrated with the European Union. Indeed, the Czech Republic and Poland were the very first former Eastern Bloc countries to implement economic reforms in an effort to become fully integrated into the EU (Hassan, Haque & Lawrence, 2006). These economic reforms contributed to the accession of these two countries to the EU, of course, but they also helped to diminish the so-called psychic distances between Poland and the Czech Republic and the other member states of the EU. In this regard, the process of internationalization involves dealing with various additional costs of conducting business in other countries, but companies with managers who have learned through previous experience with other countries, the costs associated with internationalization are reduced (Cuervo-Cazurra, 2006).

The theoretical framework of the incremental internationalization process or Uppsala model can be used to better understand the selection of countries in which to internationalize based on the notion of how much "psychic distance" exists between the different countries involved (Cuervo-Cazurra, 2006). In this regard, Armario, Ruiz and Armario (2008) report that to the extent that companies enjoy the benefit of solid information and experience with other countries will likely be the extent to which the psychic distance between them is reduced. According to Cuero-Cazurra, "Psychic distance is the difference between countries in terms of language, culture, education, business practices, industrial development, and regulations, all of which may limit the transfer of information. This distance reduces the ability of the firm, and particularly of its managers, to understand foreign information" (p. 807). The Uppsala and like-minded frameworks depict the process of internationalization as being a learning process wherein the knowledge required for future initiatives is obtained through a sequential series of international decisions (Armario et al., 2008). The more alike that countries are in terms of a wide of a cultural dimensions such as those articulated by Geert Hofstede and other sociologists will be the extent to which investments flow between them and the process of internationalization will be accelerated. As Armario and her associates emphasize, "Internationalization is thus perceived as an evolutionary process in which companies develop growing levels of commitment to foreign markets as they travel through a series of sequential steps and accumulate decisions" (p. 486).

As can be seen in Figures 1 below, there is a high level of congruence between the cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede (2009) for Poland and the Czech Republic (see definitions of these cultural dimensions at Appendix a). There is also a high level of congruence between these cultural dimensions for Poland and the Czech Republic with other major members of the EU such as Germany and France as shown in Figures 2 and 3 below (Poland's cultural dimensions are used as a basis for comparison based on the similarities with the Czech Republic).

Figure 1. Comparison of Cultural Dimensions of Poland and the Czech Republic

Source: Hofstede, 2009

Figures 2 and 3. Comparison of Cultural Dimensions of Poland with France and Germany

Key:

Power Distance Index

Individualism

MAS

Masculinity

UAI

Uncertainty Avoidance Index

LTO

Long-Term Orientation

Source: Hofstede, 2009

As can be readily seen