Environmental policy in the European Union: actors, institutions and processes edited by Andrew Jordan, second edition, 2005. Earthscan, 366 pp. ISBN 1-84407-157-X. ISBN 1-84407-158-8

✍ Scribed by Görg, Christoph

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 61 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0961-0405
• DOI: 10.1002/eet.420

✦ Synopsis

There is a broad consensus among scholars as much as among politicians that European environmental policy represents a unique success story. While the founding documents of the European Economic Community in 1957 did not even mention the term environment, the EU has become over the years one of the main players of global environmental policy. Today, European environmental policy is constituted by a broad range of institutions, actors and measures. Moreover, attempts to explain this success have stimulated new ways of thinking about this particular kind of supranational entity, giving rise to notions of multi-level governance. The second edition of Andrew Jordan's seminal work, however, explains why this success story might not continue. According to the arguments presented in this volume, the EU, facing new challenges, will have to change its major institutional procedures and organizing rules in order to advance environmental protection aims.

Andrew Jordan has brought together a collection of mostly already published work written by well known scholars of European environmental policy. His book therefore represents something like a standard volume on this issue that offers an overview of the most important topics for students or scholars as well as for a wider audience including policy-makers or environmental activists. Some important modifications, however, shape the new edition of this volume. Parts dealing with standard rules and institutions are reduced and parts addressing specific issues and future challenges are expanded (new chapters are marked with an asterisk, *). Therefore, readers seeking basic information are recommended to focus first on some initial chapters of the first edition or other textbooks listed in the appendix. Nevertheless, Andrew Jordan did not design this second edition to address highly specialized topics but rather to give an overview covering the history, institutions, actors and objectives of EU environmental policy. Situated in between an introductory and a more specialized volume, the book meets very well the editor's objectives to deliver a 'meso level' treatment of the theory and practice of EU environmental policy.

The volume starts with a short but comprehensive introduction that highlights the most important features addressed in subsequent sections. Part 1 -about the historical and institutional context -is dealt with in two contributions. One from Philipp M. Hildebrand analyses the historical process between 1957 to 1992 and the second, written by Andrew Jordan and Jenny Fairbrass*, tackles the process after the Nice summit. According to Jordan and Fairbrass, the Nice treaty presents a key procedural challenge to EU environmental policy-making, in particular the voting rules, which make it easier for 'the big three' (UK, France and Germany) to block new policies. Together with Eastern enlargement, these may shift the balance of political power towards those favouring the status quo against new and more ambitious environmental reform projects. Part 2 deals with the actors of EU environmental policy. Beside the member states, in particular the 'green member states', treated in the paper by Duncan Liefferink and Mikael Skou Andersen, and environmental groups, tackled by Sonia Mazey and Jeremy Richardson, the role of the European Court of Justices (ECJ) and the European Parliament (EP) is discussed in more detail. Ida J. Koppen describes the often-overlooked role of the ECJ in tightening the legal framework of compliance with EU rules. In a newly added chapter, Charlotte Burns* explains the role of the increasingly powerful EP in advocating higher environmental standards in Europe.

Part 3 gathers three articles about the dynamic of European environmental policy. Albert Weale describes the process of rule-making in the EU. He explains the way in which this multi-level system generates a particular 'policy patchwork', marked by non-anticipated dynamics and achievements at one hand and by a lack of common problem solving mentality at the other. Anthony R. Zito gives an overview and an exploration of key theoretical approaches used to explain the evolution of EU environmental policy. Chapter 10, written by Tanja Börzel*, could be seen as an example of the so-called 'governance turn' in EU scholarship (as labelled by Jordan in his introduction). Instead of studying the way member states have influenced and created EU common environmental policy, her focus is on how member states are affected by the patchwork policy of the EU. Thus, the multi-level governance process is neither an entirely top-down nor a wholly bottom-up process, but a complex amalgam. Concerning the important role member states are playing, Börzel distinguishes between 'pace setters' and 'foot draggers'. Because basic differences are not likely to disappear in the integration process, further European enlargement must learn to deal with more heterogeneity and a less harmonized environmental policy.

The fourth part focuses on the role of the EU in global affairs. Three chapters in Part 4 deal with comparisons or conflicts between the EU and the USA: Lee Ann Patterson and Tim Josling* write about biotechnology regulation in Europe and USA, David Vogel* about consumer and environmental protection policies and Chad Damro and Pilar Luaces Mendez* about global climate policy and the Kyoto Protocol. David Vogel shows that the US had had the leading role in risk regulation for about three decades. About 15 years ago, however, this role moved over to Europe. Today, the EU today is threatened by a deadlock and therefore in danger of losing its leading role. Nevertheless, the emergence of the EU as a leading force in global