Enviroment and EU Accession

Sa？etak Accession to the EU is a strategic goal for Croatia. To achieve it, Croatia has to comply with many conditions, whereas environmental issues gain in importance. As a result of the overall process of harmonizing national legislation with the environmental acquis communautaire, better environmental quality is expected. This paper presents environmental issues in formal EU documents, as well as the Environment Action Program. After reviewing the state of environment in Croatia, the paper elaborates the main tasks in the association process, describes institutions and legislation, and financial requirements necessary for complying with the EU standards. The paper also briefly discusses the issue of subsidiarity, which is now very relevant on the EU level