The Environmental Legal Framework Governing the Relations Between the EU And Serbia as a Candidate Country

The Republic of Serbia is officially a candidate for the European Union (EU) accession for more than ten years, as membership negotiations started in 2014. However, the negotiations on Cluster 4 (Green Agenda and Sustainable Connectivity) were opened only in December 2021, eight years after the first EU-Serbia Intergovernmental Conference. As was the case for all former candidate countries in recent EU enlargement rounds, the legal requirements on environmental protection and sustainability have occupied an important place in the accession negotiations, reflecting also some of the Union’s major orientations in its external relations taken lato sensu. The objective of this Chapter is to offer a case study of the complex and often tense relations between, on the one hand, the EU’s legal requirements on environmental protection, and, on the other, its enlargement policy and membership negotiations with, in this case, Serbia. The first part of the analysis defines the place of environmental sustainability in the EU’s external action and examines how the Union’s actions influenced sustainability and environmental policies. The second part of the analysis examines how and to which extent the existing EU’s environmental legal framework influences its relations with Serbia as a candidate country. In conclusion, the Chapter argues that—in spite of its growing importance—the EU’s legal framework on sustainability and environmental protection encounters ever-growing challenges regarding its implementation in the candidate countries.