What factors determine Swedenʹs provision of environmental aid to Eastern Europe?

This paper seeks to analyse the debate which has shaped Swedenʹs environmental aid programme to Eastern Europe over the past four to five years, through focusing on two criteria: efficiency (both economic and environmental) and responsibility. Efficiency is used to refer to using resources to obtain the maximum environmental benefit for resources expended. Responsibility is examined here in terms of ultimate liability for the products or outcomes of aid given by one nation to another, and how it affects the recipient nationʹs sovereignty. Do donors give aid because they feel responsible on moral, historical or other grounds? Long-range air pollution and cleaning up the Baltic Sea are used as illustrative examples. The paper concludes by looking at the current policy and practice of Swedenʹs environmental assistance to Eastern Europe and how this has been influenced by the efficiency and responsibility arguments.