Bulgarien und Rumänien in der Europäischen Union – forstpolitische Herausforderungen | Bulgaria and Romania in the European Union – challenges for forest policy

Abstract

Romania's and Bulgaria's accession to the European Union (EU) increased the forested area of the Community considerably and lead to significant changes within the forest sectors of these states, which had been shaped by centrally planned economy for a long time. Entering the European economic area and complying with its legal framework triggered a dynamic development, which was characterized by the competing priorities of domestic forest policy and the requests formulated by the EU. This article is going to discuss the immanent processes of these developments based on the results of three dissertations on this topic carried out at the Institute of Forest and Environmental Policy, University of Freiburg (Germany) during the recent years. The research focuses on the institutional changes in Romania and Bulgaria paying special attention to the restitution of property to private owners. Besides formal institutions, also informal aspects such as conflicting beliefs and interests of different forest policy stakeholders are considered. It can be shown that, despite the considerable development the forest sectors of both countries went through, still major challenges remain to be dealt with until they are fully integrated into the European economic and political area.