BUILDING ENVIRONMENTAL CAPACITIES IN KOSOVO AND ITS CHALLENGE TO COMPLY WITH EU ENVIRONMENTAL ACQUIS

Sa？etak This paper analyses the development of environmental governance in Kosovo, environmental laws, regulations, processes, and their conformity with the EU environmental acquis. Kosovo, like other countries in the Balkans trying to join the EU, will, in the process of accession, have to ensure that its legislation conforms to the Copenhagen accession criteria. While Kosovo authorities have progressed in the process of legal harmonization, there has been little progress in executing the legal framework in terms of institutional design, necessary processes and policy developments. The key question posed in this paper is whether the environmental governance approach in Kosovo, in line with EU accession process, represents an appropriate framework for dealing with the country？s environmental problems. The current Kosovo legal framework, institutional set-up, and current practice will be evaluated against conformity with the EU acquis. The implementation of EU environmental acquis in Kosovo is to be seen as an important opportunity to create environmental governance and stable processes of assessing environmental impact and increasing environmental policy integration