Output of EU environmental legislation 1970-97

Source: Innovative and responsive? A longitudinal analysis of the speed of EU environmental policy making 1967-1997. Journal of European Public Policy 6 (2): 376-398. By Jordan, A et al (June 1999)

Early theorists of the European Union firmly believed that cross-jurisdictional learning would help drive and sustain the political process of integration by facilitating transfer of national sovereignty to European-level organisations. As players from different political and functional domains interacted in the course of trade and joint decision making, the idea was that they would gradually readjust their loyalties and allegiances from national perspectives to a new, supranational level of governance as they learned the 'habits' of integration. The engrenage (meshing together) of national and supranational administrative systems would lead to a cumulative, inherently expansive pattern of intgration and a more or less automatic transfer of sovereignty from national to supranational bodies.

Membership of the EU has culminated in significant Europeanisation of many areas of British political life. In the environmental sphere, almost all UK legislation is now driven by, or developed in close association with, EU or international legislation.

Europe has also helped prompt long term changes to the traditional structure, style and philosophy of UK environmental policy. The phrase 'Think European' came into use at the time of Britain's entry to the Common Market in 1973. It stemmed primarily from the then Prime Minister's decision to integrate European business into all aspects of central government work, rather than establish a single 'Department of Europe'. Now CSERGE is asking, how well has the UK Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) responded to this challenge? DETR performs a critical role in negotiating EU standards in the Environment Council and in applying whatever standards are subsequently agreed to by Britain.

A related line of enquiry seeks to trace the policy impact of 'history-making' alterations made to the founding Treaties of the EU at Luxembourg (1986), Maastricht (1991) and Amsterdam (1997). How have they affected day-to-day process of shaping and applying policy in politically sensitive environmental niches like land use or habitat protection?

Integration has never progressed in a steady predictable manner. However, the European experience has shown that the progressive regionalisation of national political systems has almost certainly the scope to force players at national and sub-national levels to readjust their activities and expectations to the new opportunities and constraints created by a rapidly enlarging supranational Union.

Andrew Jordan
Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1603 593176
Fax: +44 (0)1603 593176
Email: a.jordan@uea.ac.uk

See also:

1. The Impact on UK Environmental Administration. In Lowe, P. & Ward, S. (Eds.) British Environmental Policy and Europe. Politics And Policy In Transition. Routledge, London:173-194. By Jordan, A. J. (1998).
2. Shifting agendas, changing regulatory structures and the 'new' politics of environmental pollution: British coastal water policy, 1955-1995. Public Administration 76. By Jordan, A. & Greenaway, J. (1998).
3. National ministries: managers or cyphers of European integration? CSERGE Working paper by Jordan, A. J. (in press).

Other related links:

CSERGE, University of East Anglia
ESRC Global Environmental CHange Programme