Environmental Policy in the EU

Actors, institutions and processes

Andrew Jordan, Camilla Adelle

• Verlag: Routledge
• Jahr: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136272202
• Auflage: 3
• Thema: Droit
• Thema: Droit de l'environnement

The European Union (EU) has a hugely important effect on the way in which environmental policies are framed and implemented in many different parts of the world, but especially Europe. The new and comprehensively revised edition of this well-known textbook provides a state-of-the-art analysis of all the EU's environmental policies.

Comprising five parts, it covers the rapidly changing context in which EU environmental policies are made, the key actors who interact to co-produce policy and the most salient dynamics of policy making, ranging from decision making through to implementation and evaluation.

Written by leading experts in the field, individual chapters examine how the EU is responding to a multitude of different problems including biodiversity loss, climate change, energy insecurity, and water and air pollution. They tease out the many important ways in which the EU's policies on these topics co-evolve with national and international environmental policies. In this third edition a mixture of learning features are employed to ensure that undergraduate and postgraduate students fully understand how EU policies in this vital area developed in the past and how they are now adapting to the rapidly evolving challenges of thetwenty-first century.

1 EU environmental policy

Contexts, actors and policy dynamics

Andrew Jordan and Camilla Adelle

Introduction

At its founding in 1957, the European Union (EU) had no environmental policy, no environmental administration and no environmental laws. The European Economic Community (EEC), as it then was, was primarily an intergovernmental agreement between six like-minded states to boost economic prosperity and restore political relations in a Europe ravaged by two world wars. Most of the environmental policies of the EU have emerged only in the past 40 years or so. Today, the EU has some of the most progressive environmental policies of any state in the world, although, curiously, it does not possess many of the formal attributes of a state such as an army, a common system of taxation or a constitution.

The central aim of this book is to provide an introduction to the history and constituent institutions of EU environmental policy, to explain how the EU makes and implements different environmental policies, and to introduce some of the most salient academic debates about the past, present and future role of environmental policy in Europe and the wider world. It is very important to know about these things because EU environmental policy heavily shapes, and is significantly shaped by, international and national environmental policies. Not only is the EU an active disseminator of high environmental standards globally, but it also heavily affects – or Europeanizes – those in its own member states. This book aims to help you to better understand and appreciate its role: first, by examining the wider context in which it makes policy (the historical background, the formal rules and legal procedures, etc.); second, by summarizing the main actors that interact with one another to shape and implement it; and third, by examining the policy dynamics through which different ideas and political interests are translated first into concrete policies and then, perhaps eventually, tangible changes in environmental quality.

The chapters of this book view these issues from a range of different perspectives. Thus, Part 1 (‘Contexts’) describes the emergence of this particular policy area over the past 40 years and the underlying institutional structures and rules governing its operation, as elaborated in the founding treaties (see Box 1.1). A myriad of different actors (some state, some non-state), work within these rules and procedures to secure their policy objectives. These different actors are summarized in Part 2 (‘Actors’). They are shown to have different goals (or interests), different resources and to operate at different levels of governance. The manner in which they interact on a day-by-day basis to shape specific items of EU policy is summarized in Part 3 (‘Policy dynamics’). Part 4 (‘Future challenges’) explores a number of problems (some relatively new, others that have emerged slowly) that are likely to challenge the EU as it moves forward. Finally, Part 5 (‘Conclusions’) reflects on what has been learnt about the functioning of EU environmental policy in the past 40 years, and looks forward to the next phase in its development.

Box 1.1 The founding treaties

‘The founding treaties’ is a term often heard in discussions relating to the EU. They are the legal agreements that created the EU and which, crucially, establish its powers and procedures. There is not one single treaty but a series of treaties which build upon one another. The founding treaties include the Treaty of Paris (establishing the Economic and Steel Community) and the two Treaties of Rome: one establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) and the European Economic Community (EEC). Reading the titles (or parts) of these treaties powerfully illustrates the concerns that contributed to the establishment of the EU – those relating to economic growth and energy security. It is for this reason that the EU is often termed a system of economic governance.

The Treaty of Rome that established the EEC has been revised several times by, inter alia, the Single European Act, the Maastricht Treaty and the Amsterdam Treaty (signed in 1986, 1992 and 1997, respectively). These treaties are not easy or, it has to be said, that exciting to read, but they establish, in very broad terms, the roles of the various actors in the EU. This is extremely important because the EU is only allowed to discharge powers that have been expressly allocated to it by the treaties. The text of directives and regulations will, for example, note which article of the treaties permits the EU to act. The whole question of the EU's competences is deeply political. Many of the cases that are brought before the European Court of Justice turn on the precise legal base (or power) of the EU to act in a given area. That said, it is important to remember that these powers are not set in stone; they change subtly over time in the period between treaty amendments, as different actors jockey for influence. In many ways, environmental policy provides a perfect case study of how policy powers can initially develop outside the formal framework of the treaties, and then are gradually drawn into them. Chapter 3 explains how the most recent treaty – the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009 – tried to draw together the provisions of all previous treaties into one consolidated text. It thus amended the Maastricht Treaty and the Treaty of Rome, and in the process renamed the latter the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU).

This book assumes no prior knowledge of the EU, but those who are entirely new to the subject or who require a more detailed review of its history, law and institutions, may wish to consult some of the items listed in the Guide to Further Reading section at the end of this chapter. Before moving on, however, it is very important to pause and refiect on what the term ‘EU’ actually denotes, as it can cause confusion. This is the subject of Box 1.2. The rest of this chapter introduces the remaining chapters of the book and begins to identify some analytical questions and puzzles that resonate throughout the text; ones that we shall return to in the concluding chapter.

Box 1.2 What is ‘the EU’?

The EU has been variously described as a system of multi-level governance, a political system and a federal state in the making. ‘What is the EU’ is therefore a somewhat existential question. But what does the term ‘the EU’ refer to? Until the ratification of the Single European Act (SEA), signed in 1986, the European Union was officially known as the European Economic Community (EEC). The SEA officially re-christened this entity the European Community (EC), a term which remained in popular use until 1992 when the Maastricht Treaty created the European Union with a new, three-pillar structure: one comprising the EC; another covering foreign and security matters; and a third dealing with justice and home affairs. Strictly speaking, the term ‘EU’ only really applies to events after 1992. However, most people now use the acronym ‘EU’ to describe its entire history and all its policy responsibilities. For the sake of convenience, this term is used to cover all the activities before and after 1992, unless otherwise specified. In general, and unless otherwise specified, the text of this book also refers to the articles of the most recent Treaty of the EU, the 2009 Lisbon Treaty, which is explored in more detail in Chapter 3.

Part 1 Contexts

Chapter 2, by Christoph Knill and Duncan Liefferink, seeks underlying explanations for the startling transformation of this policy area from what have been termed a series of ‘incidental measures’ (Hildebrand, 2005) to a sophisticated, multi-level governance system in which policy-making powers are shared between supranational, national and subnational actors. One of the questions that Christoph Knill and Duncan Liefferink dwell on is how such a transformation occurred, given the unfavourable legal and institutional pre-conditions which existed in the late 1960s. It does seem remarkable today, but the word ‘environment’ was not even mentioned in the Treaty of Rome. Their analysis shows that policy makers, acting without any legislative authority, cleverly defined environmental policy as an element of trade policy. In time, EU environmental policy did not simply emancipate itself from its status as a by-product of economic and market integration, but in turn began to affect the functioning of the internal market (Weale, 2005).

In effect, they show why the formal wording of the EU's founding treaties offers an important but incomplete perspective on EU action in any given area. Since 1957, there have been numerous treaty changes which have substantially strengthened the EU's environmental powers (see Table 1.1). In Chapter 3, David Benson and Camilla Adelle bring this story right up to date with an analysis of the amendments introduced by the 2009 Lisbon Treaty. One of the puzzles that they address is why the EU felt it necessary to adopt another round of changes so soon after the adoption of the Amsterdam and Nice Treaties. They also investigate the emerging impact of the changes it made. They conclude that some innovations are yet to become fully operational, some are already having significant impacts, and some have arguably failed to have any effect thus far; or as they suggest – comme ci, comme ça.

Table 1.1 Significant treaty changes affecting EU environmental policy

Year signed	Year in force	Treaty	Changes affecting environmental policy
1957	1958	Rome	No mention of environment
1986	1987	Single European Act	Environmental Title added Article on environmental policy integration added Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) for the internal market
1992	1993	Maastricht	‘Sustainable growth respecting the Environment’ becomes one of the tasks of the Community (Article 2) Environment Title strengthened to include mention of ‘precautionary principle’ Integration Article (Article 130r) was reinforced The number of policy areas where the Council could adopt environmental legislation using QMV was extended Co-decision strengthened the role of the European Parliament in developing environment policy
1997	1999	Amsterdam	Article 2 strengthened so that ‘Sustainable development of economic activities’ made an explicit objective of the EU Integration Article given more prominence (Article 6) Co-decision becomes the normal process for agreeing environment policy
2001	2003	Nice	QMV changed to establish a double majority of member states and votes cast
2007	2009	Lisbon	Environment Title (174–176, TEC) substantively unchanged but numbering changed (now Articles 191–193, TFEU) Integration Article now Article 11 Article 2 strengthened so that the EU shall work for the ‘sustainable development of Europe’ and the ‘sustainable development of the Earth’ (now Article 3, TEU)

Source: Based on Farmer (2011).

Chapter 4, Andrea Lenschow completes this contextual overview by exploring the way in which the puzzling emergence and evolution of EU environmental policy have been studied by academics. This proves to be a highly illuminating exercise. She shows how academics have addressed a number of very salient questions: how and why this sector developed as a policy area; why it selects certain kinds of governing instruments but not others; and why we only know so much about the overall performance of its policies in ameliorating policy problems.

Part 2 Actors

Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, items of EU environmental policy were agreed by the Council of Environment Ministers on the basis of proposals submitted by the Commission (see Chapters 5 and 6). In the 1980s, this bilateral arrangement gradually gave way to a more diffuse web of activities centred on a set of trilateral links between the Council, the Commission, and the European Parliament. Matters which had been successfully contained in discrete intergovernmental committees of national bureaucrats and state-sponsored scientists began to leak out, energizing national and international pressure groups, disrupting national practices and exciting public interest. What had been a relatively short cast list of actors over time became steadily longer and longer; the impact and importance of ‘Brussels’ began to grow.

The chapters in Part 3 focus on some of the most important actors who, together, ‘make’ EU policy. These include, first and foremost, the member states, which of course originally established the EU. In Chapter 5, Rüdiger Wurzel describes the central role they perform in the various councils in which they meet to determine policies. He shows that, in the past, EU environmental policy was heavily shaped by greener (or ‘leader’) states such as Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark, pushing the EU to adopt standards that were as high if not higher than their own, nat...

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyrights
• Contents
• List of boxes
• List of tables
• Notes on contributors
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• 1 EU environmental policy: contexts, actors and policy dynamics
• PART 1 Contexts
• PART 2 Actors
• PART 3 Policy dynamics
• PART 4 Future challenges
• PART 5 Conclusion
• Index