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An introduction to the journal is presented which discusses the associations between Europeanization and the evolution of environmental governance in the Western Balkans and South East Europe.

The post-conflict case of Bosnia-Herzegovina provides a challenging case for the approaches employed by the European Union to bolster state and non-state actor capacities related to environmental governance in post-socialist states. This article examines four major consultative environmental impact assessment processes in Bosnia-Herzegovina in order to identify factors that either enable or impede the development of multi-level environmental governance at the state and sub-state entity levels. Larger environmental non-governmental organisations provide scientific opinions and smaller organisations lack capacity to participate at all. The complex configuration of state institutions, compounded by inadequate staffing and funding, creates impediments for effective governmental hierarchy during environmental impact assessments. However, international financial institutions and technical consultants involved in environmental impact assessments have taken a pivotal tutelage role to familiarise local stakeholders with best practice, which has led to some improvements in multi-level environmental governance during environmental impact assessments in Bosnia-Herzegovina, though the impact is dependent on staff retention in Bosnian public bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this paper I seek to identify the conditions under which a shift occurs from hierarchical decision making towards new modes of environmental governance in a case of weak statehood (Bosnia-Herzegovina), where an external agency (the EU) exerts significant influence alongside foreign consultants and international financial institutions (the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development--EBRD). The Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) undertaken as part of the development of the trans-European road network across the country are used here as case studies for examining emerging patterns of environmental governance in a state under the shadow of EU conditionality. The data suggest that whilst over a period of time the adoption of new EU-compliant formal procedures and frameworks (eg, EIA laws) does seem to be generating new modes of governance interaction and citizen involvement, the impact is contingent upon the critical didactic role played by (in this case) the EBRD in making the formal procedures effective and in building knowledge capacity within the state administration. Thus, a simple correlation between EU conditionality and substantive political change cannot be assumed, particularly where state agencies possess limited policy knowledge and nonstate actors (environmental NGOs) lack mobilisation capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]