1st Edition

EU Environmental Policies in Subnational Regions The Case of Scotland and Bavaria

By Antje C.K. Brown Copyright 2001
    262 Pages
    by Routledge

    This title was first published in 2001: Despite the fact that environmental directives are one of the strongest areas of policy decreed by the EU, it has a much poorer record when it comes to actual implementation of these policies. Instead of focusing on the traditional state-centrist accounts, this book compares two subnational regions within the EU, Scotland and Bavaria, and their role in the policy process. The author offers a multi-layered implementation map which highlights three main government ’layers’ involved in the filtering process and identifies various formal and informal determinants which shape EU environmental policies during the process. The book not only compares implementation performances between the two regions and their respective states, but also compares the region’s processes against the national processes, thereby exposing determinants that would otherwise remain undetected. In doing so, it confirms that subnational regions feature determinants which differ in many respects from national determinants and influence the effectiveness of EU environmental policies. The book contributes to a better understanding of the implementation deficit and presents a more refined picture of the EU environmental policy ’reality’.

    Contents: Introduction; Towards a multi-layered implementation map; Environmental politics and policy in the EU; Environmental politics and policy in the UK and Germany; Environmental politics and policy in Scotland and Bavaria; Case study: implementing the EIA directive in Scotland and Bavaria; Conclusion: subnational regions matter in the implementation of EU environmental policies; Bibliography.
    ’This book examines the role of subnational authorities in facilitating or hindering effective implementation of EU environmental policies. Based on extensive field research and case studies, the study offers a rich analysis of why good policies crafted in Brussels so often fail to be implemented on the ground. A helpful implementation map guides the reader through the multi-layered and complex process of EU policy formulation, transposition and implementation. The book will be useful to academics and policy makers interested in environmental policy, implementation studies, or the role of subnational actors more generally.’ Dr Elizabeth Bomberg, Lecturer, Dept of Politics, University of Edinburgh, UK ’The strength of the book is that it addresses a number of debates and that it is of interest beyond the specalist area of the EU Environmental politics.’ Environmental Politics ’...this book [makes] a significant contribution to a better understanding of the implementation deficit and presents a clearer picture of the reality of EU environmental policy.’ European Review of Public Law