‘Green’ Europe: Differentiation in Environmental Policies

Abstract

Early EU environmental policy showed less differentiation than many other EU policies. There have not been the opt-outs seen, for example, in monetary and in social policies, for three main reasons. First, many environmental problems (such as climate change) are trans-national problems that states cannot resolve in isolation. Environmental protection requires common public policies to safeguard public goods (such as clean air) from the use of which no one can be excluded. Free-riding is therefore salient for EU environmental policy (see Chapter 3 by Kölliker in this volume). Second, as explained below, national environmental product standards pose a serious threat to the unitary functioning of the internal market and therefore must be harmonized on the EU level. Third, environmental policy has been one of the most popular areas for European integration (Eurobarometer, 2005–2009). Whilst in the early 1990s certain actors pushed the concept of subsidiarity as signifying that the most appropriate level of action should occur at the national (or sub-national) level, the Commission, supported by the European Parliament (EP) and the Environmental Council, has managed to defend the need for EU environmental action.