Positioning the Nordic Countries in European Union Environmental Policy

Sanna C Sääksjärvi

doi:10.1177/1070496520933324

Abstract

The influence of the Nordic countries on the European Union’s (EU's) policy processes has been researched from various angles, but there is a lack of research that comprehensively examines all policy positions advanced by Nordic actors within a given policy context. This article introduces a new design for studying policy positions and influence in the EU and examines the phenomenon from a multilevel perspective using an original data set compiled in connection to three directives: the Floods Directive on the assessment and management of flood risks, the Environmental Liability Directive, and the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive. The analysis reveals that the Nordic countries follow a certain pattern of influencing EU policy that deviates from other states participating in the consultations. Nordic governmental actors exert a strong technical but weak directional influence in the chosen context but are, overall, more successful than Nordic organizational actors at influencing the policy process.

Highlights

The influence of the Nordic countries on the European Union’s (EU’s) policy processes has been researched from various angles, but there is a lack of research that comprehensively examines all policy positions advanced by Nordic actors within a given policy context
Changes have occurred in multilevel environmental governance in the past decade, with new forms of environmental governance arising that are indifferent to formal hierarchies (Eckerberg & Joas, 2004).According to the authors, such changes are due to a shift in responsibilities from the public to the private sector and increased networking between public and private actors, which is especially evident in the Nordic countries and the Baltic area (Eckerberg & Joas, 2004).The Nordic countries are traditionally pictured as unitary states with well-developed, comprehensive welfare systems (Jacobsson et al, 2004) and cooperation arrangements that distinguish them as strong nation states that powerfully emphasize the preservation of national sovereignty (Olsen & Sverup, 1998, as cited in Jacobsson et al, 2004)
The policy positions expressed by the Nordic countries have been examined by earlier research (Pajala & Widgren, 2010; Selck & Kuipers, 2005) but to a lesser extent and level of detail than in the analysis presented in this study.To date, the greatest number of policy positions (331) has been analyzed by Thomson (2011), who focused on controversial issues and investigated one to four position(s)/directive

Summary

A Nordic Pattern of Influence?

The Nordic countries consist of five states: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, and the semiautonomous areas the Faroe Islands and Greenland and the Aland Islands. They are states that fiercely protect their national sovereignty As this analysis consists of a total sample of environmental directives where the consultation mechanism has been used, it captures the pattern of how Nordic actors participate in the commission’s consultations. AI represents the number of an actor’s policy positions present in the final law compared with the number of positions that actor has attempted to push through It is based on Heritier’s (1996, 2001) notion of directives as “patchworks,” reflecting countries’ national preferences at the European level. The variable “desired rule shift” (DRS) is threefold (À1, 0, þ1) and rates the actor’s stand concerning governmental influence on a member-state level It measures if the actor wishes the EU or the member states to have more influence over the decision-making process in the future Directive than the current draft provides for. The hypotheses formulated in the theoretical section are analyzed later

A Nordic Pattern of Influence

Findings

Categorical Conclusions