EU Environmental Legislation (Chapter 22 of the Acquis Communautaire) is said to be one of the most difficult chapters in the negotiation process of accession countries to the European Union. 10 new countries became EU Members in May 2004, Romania and Bulgaria followed in 2007. Countries are obliged to put in place all necessary laws to meet EU requirements. Experience from Green NGOs from these EU 10 +2 countries show that the way towards full and correct implementation of these laws is long and that NGOs need to address the problems. Implementation and enforcement of EU Environmental Policy and Law is of crucial importance in new EU Member States and candidate countries, as fast economic development puts high pressure on Natural Resources and the Environment.

For the purpose of broadening the scope of J&E and offering know how transfer to EU candidate countries Justice & Environment established and intensified contacts to environmental law organisations in the SEE (South Eastern Europe) region in 2006. SEE is located closely to the CEE region where most of J&E member organisations are based. Many countries in SEE are confronted with similar problems like many CEE countries that became Members of the European Union in 2004.

Justice & Environment invited several environmental law NGOs to a joint seminar in Budapest in December 2006. Four organisations from Slovenia, Croatia, Romania and Macedonia participated. At the Budapest meeting, J&E members and the SEE colleagues discovered a great need of capacity building and transfer of know how between each other. Naturally, the transfer would go in both directions. SEE NGOs proved to be particularly experienced in policy making, working with grass root activists and public relations. On the other hand, J&E members offered expertise in environmental law including the European environmental law. We considered it important to work on joint projects in the region.

In October 2007 the UN-ECE nvironment for Europe Conference took place in Belgrade (Serbia). The implementation of the UN-ECE Conventions, in particular the Aarhus Convention on public participation, environmental information and access to justice and (albeit indirectly) the Espoo Convention have always been main topics for J&E. The conference was of particular interest to us. J&E used this opportunity to actively participate in the NGO side event in Belgrade, participated on workshops on environmental law in particular with regard to SEE region.