EU environmental policy

Abstract

At its founding in 1957, the European Union (EU) had no environmental policy, no environmental administration and no environmental laws. Today, the EU has some of the most ambitious environmental policies in the world. The central aim of this book is to provide an introduction to the history and constituent institutions of EU environmental policy, to explain how it makes and implements different types of environmental policy and to introduce some of the most salient academic debates about its past, present and future role. This chapter introduces the rest of the book. It explains how Part 1 describes the emergence of policy over the past 50 years and Part 2 introduces the main actors. The manner in which these actors interact to shape specific items of EU policy is summarised in Part 3. Part 4 explores a number of problems that are likely to challenge the EU as it moves forward. Finally, Part 5 reflects on how the aims and processes of EU environmental policy have changed over the course of the past 50 years and looks forward to the next phase in its development.