Environmental Politics in the European Union

This book provides an introduction into the development, the making and the implementation of European Union environmental politics. It employs a clear and accessible analytical perspective based on the theoretical state-of-the-art of EU policy Studies.

Christoph Knill is Professor of Political and Administrative Science at the University of Konstanz, Germany. Duncan Liefferink is Senior Researcher at the Department of Political Sciences of the Environment at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Introduction and historical overview: the establishment of environmental policy as a European policy domain * Patterns of regulation * Central institutions and actors * Political processes and decision-making procedures * Typical interest constellations and patterns of interaction * Making EU environmental policy in practice: three case studies * Implementation effectiveness of EU environmental policy * Strategies to improve implementation effectiveness: “new” environmental policy instruments as a panacea? * The implementation of EU environmental policy in the UK, France, Germany and Spain * Taking stock: the environmental problem-solving capacity of the EU * Conclusions