How does the policy-making process affect policy compliance? Analysing the relationship between policy outcomes and their decision-making processes, the article explores the process of implementation of European directives in two CEE countries namely, Hungary and Poland, in the waste sector. Hungary and Poland have been considered as similar cases for their historical, political and economic experiences; however, EU monitoring reports have shown that these two countries have differently performed in the adoption and implementation of the EU waste legislation. The explanation for variation considered in this article relies on the existence of different “styles” of policy-making. To operationalise this concept, in the article is adopted the typology of “policy style” defined by Richardson (1982) which distinguishes between the environmental institutional and legal settings and the stakeholders’ involvement in the policy-making. The analysis of the Hungarian and Polish cases shows that, while similarities have characterised the legal and institutional environmental decision-making settings, greater difference has existed in the effective involvement of stakeholders in the environmental policy-making. In Hungary, front-runner in the implementation of the European waste legislation, we have the establishment of open and coordinated arenas of cooperation and consultation in which the stakeholders multilaterally are involved. In contrast, in Poland, laggard in the implementation of the EU waste legislation, we have the establishment of personal, bilateral and informal relations between officials of the Environmental Ministry or the Members of Parliament and the stakeholders involved in the environmental decision-making. Hence, the paper demonstrates that the existence of variations in the involvement of stakeholders determines also variation in the policy outcomes and may also explain variation in the compliance with the European legislation.