ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Influence of European Union Directives of 1990 on United Kingdom Environmental Policy

Influence of European Union Directives of 1990 on United Kingdom Environmental Policy

Introduction

Discourse centered on environmental policy in the European Union seems to have a different character than that surrounding other areas of EU competence. Environmental policy is an area in which the EU has a very high degree of competence, and it has achieved this with a relatively small degree of resistance from the member states makes environmental policy an interesting field of study in terms of European integration, as there seems to be a fundamental link between the two. It is no accident that environmental policy has become so important for the EU. Problems do not stop at national borders, and thus policies to manage environmental concerns must be administered from a level allowing for cross-border application. In this way, it seems to make sense that environmental policy should move from the national to the European level, and indeed environmental policy-making is a field in which centralization has taken place. Results here are particularly interesting, given that the EU is typically considered a highly decentralized polity especially when compared to the United States, a nation that is generally considered to be much more centralized than Europe. The field's history and its guiding principles provide interesting ideas about connections between environmental policy and European integration as well as the federalist centralization that results, while a closer look at policies, regulations, and institutions further these notions. Policies are now firmly established in the foundations of EU law, and though they are far from perfect, they still provide an important example of political convergence stemming from the larger process of Europeanization (Harrington et al, 2009, 10-11).

In order to demonstrate the degree of centralization in environmental policy in the European Union, it is essential to develop a measure of the phenomenon. To arrive at such a measure, we must first come to understand the European Union as a federalist entity. States that are federally inspired systems are characterized by a central power endowed with autonomous lawmaking capacity that exists alongside the units comprising that same federal system, which maintain their legislative prerogatives. This is a definition that certainly describes the EU.

Principles of Decision-Making in the EU

The idea of environmental policy as a policy field on its own is a relatively new one. Indeed, since the beginning of civilization decisions made by governments have reaped positive and negative environmental consequences, but not until the second half of the 20th century was the political will created to make policies for this express purpose. Now it is arguably one of the most important policy fields for modern societies. The societies of Europe are some of the most contemporary in the world; it follows that environmental policy should be an important field in the European Union (Goulder et al, 1998, 1-3). It is also interesting to note that the time period of the rise of environmental policy as an important modern policy field roughly ...