Starting with the premise that the environmental management system is an integral part of the multidimensional socio-economic, cultural and political system of a country, a critical overview of the existing environmental management system in Macedonia was conducted as a case study in an attempt to identify and evaluate the key problems, challenges, and issues that hinder the transition of post-communist countries. The analysis revealed that the same barriers were present in the different systems of many post-communist counties. These barriers may be overcome only by creating indigenous well educated personnel who understand the specifics of their country.
Since the fall of the Berlin wall, influx of new products and technologies, together with the opening of new markets, has initiated dramatic economic changes in post-communist countries. Additionally, vast influx of new Western ideas, views, and knowledge followed these economic changes and, consequently, has necessitated redefinition of old regulatory and management principles which were deeply rooted in the former socialist system and communist ideology (Agh, 1999 and Naumovska, 2000). Suddenly, while these countries transitioned to free market economies, their new governments had to deal with the realities of crumbling infrastructure, unemployment, corruption, nepotism, and inadequate or non-existent education in environmental management practices.
During the fifty plus years of socialism, priorities of communist regimes generally excluded concerns about environmental management and people's exposure to contaminants in the air, water, and soil. Restructuring the old socialist based environmental regulatory and management approaches to address the needs of post-socialist transition represented one of the greatest challenges for the institutions of these countries. Many problems, challenges and issues in the environmental arena mirrored the ones in the socio-economic, cultural and political arenas. This is not surprising since the environmental management system is an integral part of the multidimensional socio-economic, cultural, and political system of a country. As such, problems, challenges and issues manifested in the environmental management system exhibit the same nature as the ones emerging from transitioning of the socio-economic, political and institutional systems. Therefore, it is valid to say that the level of overall transition success in a post-communist country can be viewed through the prism of transition success in the environmental management system. One may even consider the environmental management system to be a more stringent indicator of a successful transition in a post-communist country because socio-economic and political problems are generally considered more important than environmental issues.
Macedonia, one of the six transitioning Yugoslavian Republics, established its independence in the early 1990s with a declaration that it would embrace the ideals of Western democracies while providing its people with a healthy and sustainable environment for future generations. However, Macedonia has been struggling through its 18 year long transition. In an attempt to identify and evaluate key problems, challenges, and issues that hinder the transition process in Macedonia, and with a premise that these obstacles can be observed through the prism of an environmental management system, a critical overview of the Macedonian environmental management system was conducted. The findings from this study can easily be extrapolated for many post-communist countries.
The presented analytical overview of the environmental management system in Macedonia identified the key problems, challenges and issues that act as barriers to successful transition in many transition/post-communist countries. It is evident that government planning and management without proper comprehensive analysis of existing situations and needs further generates some of these barriers. Inadequate management structure, tinted with nepotism, corruption and incompetence, percolates from national to local government levels as a result of absence of educated personnel capable properly to reform both the regulations and the command-and-control functions of the government. These are the same evident barriers present in the different systems of many post-communist counties whether these systems have socio-economic, political, cultural or other prefix. Unfortunately, the leaderships of these countries fail to understand that only indigenous personnel, which are well educated in Western countries and well versed in the socio-economic and cultural specifics of their own countries, could create proper mechanisms for overcoming these transition problems, challenges and issues.
