National Regulators between Union and Governments: a Study of the EU’s Environmental Policy Network IMPEL

Abstract

Recent studies of implementation in the EU literature have to a large extent focused on differences between member states in relation to their individual ability or capacity (or lack thereof) to implement Community law (see, for example, Mendrinou 1996; Tallberg 1999; Peters 2000; Knill 2001; Mbaye 2001; Bursens 2002; Sverdrup 2003a). The focus in this chapter is rather on the interplay between different actors at various levels of governance, including a description and analysis of a specific implementation arrangement, namely networks between the European Commission and national regulatory agencies. This is an arrangement to be put into action after the laws are incorporated into the domestic legal systems and before the practitioners on the ground are to implement the legal acts. The specific case to be analysed is the IMPEL network, an informal network composed of representatives from the national environmental inspectorates in 29 countries — including all member states of the European Union, the three candidate countries Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, and Norway — and the European Commission.