Política Ambiental De La Unión Europea

Alfredo Diaz
Prof. C. Bradley Scharf
PLSC 464 – European Union
20 April 2007
Environmental Policy of the European Union
Environmental concerns have grown to occupy a prominent role in European
Union affairs because of the scientific community’s findings regarding the negative
impact of human induced strains on the global environment, and because of the market
failures created by imperfectinformation on green products and the negative
consequences of pollution on the Union’s health. The current state of the environment in
Europe, the scope of supranationalism, political idealism, economic interests, as well as
issues surrounding enlargement have contributed to the EU’s environmental body of law.
The desired aims and their implementation have been mixed and controversial, buttheir
accomplishments have afforded the EU—as an international body—the status of global
leader in addressing environmental concerns, and EU firms a growing share of the
growing global market for environmentally friendly goods and services.
The relative affluence and high population density in Europe has stressed the
continent with billions of tons of waste and high rates of carbon dioxideemissions, and
the local immediacy of the problem has led the European Union to seek environmental
policies rooted primarily in pragmatism. But the EU has also acted strongly on climate
change, ozone layer depletion, and excessive pollution, increasing its involvement in
international environmental affairs, and positioning environmental policy at the top of the
EU’s “political and economicagenda since the 1980s” (Dinan 465).

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Idealism has also played an important role in the decision making process at all
levels of EU leadership. The Kyoto Treaty brought to the world stage the imminent
threat of the global environmental crisis. Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands had
been traditionally the strongest supporters of aggressive environmental policies, and
Great Britain,Ireland, Italy, and Greece had traditionally been the strongest opponents of
these policies, and whereas the official stance of the EU on environmental protection has
rested somewhere between these two ideological positions, the tendency has been to
adopt policies closer to the greener side of the argument.
What began with a vague commitment to improve the “living and working
conditions” of peoplein the Rome Treaty has grown to an outright commitment for the
establishment of an environmental policy since the Paris summit in 1972, to the
establishment of a separate directorate-general for environmental affairs (DG
Environment) in the European Commission, to the enactment of six Environmental
Action Programs (EAPs) since 1977 (Dinan 465), to the adoption of directives requiring
memberstates to comply with environmental impact assessments (EIAs) since 1985
(Dinan 469).
The European Commission has played a vital role in the supranationalization of
the environmental debate. It has allowed for environmental policy to become an integral
part of all other policies—notably economic, industrial, transport, energy, agricultural,
and social—whether at the national or European level.At various times when the
Council has been caught between polarizing views, the Commission has provided the
leadership necessary for supranational cooperation to focus on issues such as atmospheric

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and marine pollution, waste management, biotechnology, and enforcement of
environmental legislation throughout the Union (Dinan 466).
In 1985 the European Council adopted a directivedemanding environmental
impact assessments (EIAs) to be made before the approval of projects that by virtue of
size, nature, or location are likely to affect the environment. EIAs are mandatory for
certain types of projects (Dinan 469). And whereas EIAs are often disregarded by some
economic actors, the Commission has brought infringement procedures against member
states who have failed to comply...