European Environmental Policy Research Articles

Dismantling of European environmental policy: how great expectations in Brussels are dashed by Italian subnational implementation

ABSTRACT Environmental policy has experienced significant expansion, with debates often centred around concerns of environmental overregulation. In response to the perceived burden of administrative requirements imposed by European regulations, the EU Commission initiated an Action Programme for dismantling environmental policy in 2007. Consequently, the Italian national government adopted a single environmental authorization provision in 2013. The effect of this simplification action at the subnational levels was a piecemeal implementation among Italian regions. The empirical contribution of the paper involves assessing the effectiveness of environmental policy dismantling at the regional level in Italy and identifying the capacities that influence this process. Through a comparative analysis of various dimensions (coordinating, regulatory, and delivery capacities), the study will show that the top-down approach for reducing red tape does not necessarily align with the administrative and implementing capacities of Italian regions, which are often affected by endemic problems.

The European Union’s legislative process in the area of environmental protection in the context of the European environmental policy

Motives: This research paper analyzes the legislative process and the implementation of the European Union’s (EU) environmental law as one of the principal tools for achieving and maintaining global ecological safety.Aim: The study was undertaken to determine how the priorities of the EU’s foreign and internal policy are reflected in the legislative process in the area of environmental protection. The problems associated with law enforcement and the implementation of EU legislative acts in national legislation were also examined, and the current state and prospects for policy-making in the area of environmental protection were assessed. The paper considers environmental policy issues and legal regulations in Azerbaijan in the context of EU experiences. The research covers political and legal relations.Results: An analysis of the historical transformation of the EU’s environmental law from an institutional and constitutional perspective was combined with an analysis of the principal aspects and the main trends in the EU’s environmental governance and lawmaking. The EU’s contribution to the development of environmental legislation highlights its approach to the multi-layered dimension of environmental governance internally, in terms of the dynamic relationship between the EU and the Member States, as well as internationally. The EU’s policy and legal regulations in the area of environmental protection can serve as a reliable example for countries in which the environmental agenda has not yet received due attention. The above applies to both strategic planning, regulatory issues, and law enforcement practices.

Sustainability Entrepreneurship and the Importance of International Policies in Sustainable Development

In the world of today, despite economic developments, there is an increase in negative social and environmental conditions. Sustainable development is to improve a better quality of life for current and future generations. Sustainable entrepreneurs develop products and services that are suitable for society and the environment instead of using traditional business processes and systems. Sustainable development and providing a liveable life for future generations depend on these entrepreneurs' use of innovation in their business processes and the effects of this situation on society. The aim of this study is to conceptually address the importance of international policies in sustainability entrepreneurship within the framework of the European Union's climate change and environmental sustainability policies, considering the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of sustainable development.
 Literature review methodology provides the advancement of knowledge by scoping and analysing previous research on the study. A literature review will be conducted regarding the research method, and determinations and suggestions will be presented within the framework of the purpose of the study. The data is collected from European Commission and Eurostat database.
 Entrepreneurship plays an important role in the transformation of countries towards a more sustainable future by protecting the environment and in harmonizing social, economic, and ecological goals. Climate change is one of the most important challenges of the 21st century. As climate change becomes more evident, the European Union's environmental policy has also evolved. The EU's policies on climate change and environmental sustainability create opportunities for technological development and sustainable entrepreneurship.

Impact of the priorities in the European environmental policy on the development of the tourist ecosystem

Impact of the priorities in the European environmental policy on the development of the tourist ecosystem

Current Status of Zoobenthic Communities Associated with Deep Circalittoral Habitats from the Romanian Continental Shelf

The European environmental policies related to marine water management require periodic environmental status assessments. Particularly, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC, clearly specifies that assessment must take into consideration benthic habitat types, including their associated biological communities. The aim of this study is to present the results from the ecological analysis of macrobenthic fauna from deep circalittoral habitats with mixed and mud sediments dominated by Modiolula phaseolina and Terebellides stroemii and to provide new information on the current structure and distribution of communities. The analyzed data covers the period 2021-2022 based on the processing of 56 samples on depths ranging between 60 m to 130 m. A total of 70 macrozoobenthic species were found in the assemblages, of which Polychaeta group had the highest number of species and individuals, mostly T. stroemii and Aonides paucibranchiata. For data interpretation, a synecological analysis was performed allowing the identification of the species with the most significant contribution to the ecosystem in terms of function, energy exchanges with the environment, the species characteristic of a biotope or those that have an accidental presence in the studied area. Also, the present ecological status of deep circalittoral habitats was assessed using the M-AMBI*(n) index, which was proposed as one of the indicators for assessing the good environmental status of marine habitats in Romanian marine waters.

A marriage of inconvenience: the coupling of spatial planning to European environmental policy

ABSTRACT For decades, the European Union has affected spatial planning in the member states through its environmental policies. To investigate the mechanism by which EU policy becomes joined up to spatial planning, we invoke the concept of ‘coupling’ from systems and organizational science. We show that coupling is established not only at the EU policymaking level (e.g. within a directive’s text), but also during implementation and enforcement. Consequently, it is possible to actively ‘manage’ coupling either by enhancing its flexibility on paper or by limiting its activation in practice. Drawing on three case studies in the Netherlands, we show that various (de)coupling strategies can be applied, but none are completely satisfactory or risk-free.

More streamlined and targeted. A comparative analysis of the 7th and 8th Environment Action Programmes guiding European environmental policy

Environment Action Programmes (EAP's) are the most important documents defining the environmental policies within the European Union. Their implementation, over the previous 50 years, represented a significant advance in raising eco-friendly awareness and suggesting solutions for environmental problems in the European Union. In this paper, we used Institutional Grammar Tool and network analysis to identify the evolution of EU EAP's by investigating the most recent two programmes (7th Environment Action Programme and 8th Environment Action Programme), particularly in priority objectives, institutional statements, enforcement perspectives, and projected participation of stakeholders. We found that the EU's 8th Environment Action Programme (2021–2030) is further streamlined and target oriented as compared to 7th Environment Action Programme. Furthermore, institutional statements included in the 8th EAP will be implemented predominantly at the levels of European Union and European Commission. On the contrary, in the 7th EAP, the number of institutions, frameworks, and stakeholders is higher and often regional and local (e.g., European Union, Environment Action Programme, European Environment Agency, European Commission, European Parliament, Convention on Biological Diversity, regional authorities, local authorities). The close links of the 8th EAP targets with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the European Green Deal represent an important step towards a greater applicability of environmental policies in the European Union. Our study reveals that comparative analysis of legal documents using Institutional Grammar Tool and network analysis can assist policymakers in assessing the drafting of legal environmental documents and obtain indispensable information about the changes to improve environmental policies.

Modelling opportunities of potential European abandoned farmland to contribute to environmental policy targets

Farmland abandonment is a major proximate driver of landscape change in European rural areas and is often followed by natural revegetation. In certain conditions, it might be preferable to prevent or reverse farmland abandonment or manage these areas towards active restoration (i.e., guided rewilding with wild or domesticated animals). These alternative responses to farmland abandonment lead to context-dependent impacts, which can potentially contribute to European Green Deal objectives for environment and rural areas. While previous studies analysed direct impacts of abandonment, there is little insight into how alternative ways of managing abandoned farmland can best contribute to environmental policy goals, and what type of management is preferred where. To assess opportunities in these areas, we compared three abandonment trajectories: natural revegetation, active restoration with rewilding, and extensive re-farming. We analysed the potential positive and negative environmental and cultural impacts of developing these management strategies in all farmland locations that could potentially be abandoned across Europe. Mapping and quantification of the benefits and risks associated with different management responses to abandonment indicate a large spatial variation across regions. While natural revegetation can support high benefits for carbon sequestration and erosion reduction, it is also linked to more frequent trade-offs than re-farming and rewilding. However, there is a very strong spatial variation in these trade-offs. It is worthwhile to focus on areas with the largest gains and fewest trade-offs when targeting investments for prevention of abandonment or rewilding. Our maps can help inform interventions in abandoned farmland to maximise the potential contributions of these lands to the European Green Deal environmental and rural policy targets.

Considerations on pollution at European level

Human activity has caused profound changes to the environment, and not infrequently the resulting effects have proven to be irreversible. Man becomes the main responsible and the most dangerous actor on the scene of pollution to the environment. Today, nature is exploited and polluted more than at any time in history. Any source of pollution becomes a disturbing factor for the smooth running of phenomena encountered at the level of natural ecosystems. Even if each ecosystem has the capacity for self-regulation, this function may be outdated in the face of dosage and the force of polluting elements. Contemporary European society feels most strongly the need for anti-pollution policies, but especially for the immediate implementation of measures to stop various phenomena and actions harmful to the environment and human life. Although the problem is real and topical, various economic and social interests reduce the number of participants with an active role in greening. This raises the need to raise broad awareness of environmental issues and encourage civil initiatives, a task that is shared between various environmental non-governmental organisations and the European Union. It currently has a broad set of rules on environmental issues, including: air quality, chemical safety, climate action, nature protection, waste management and water quality. When it comes to climate, nature and chemicals, the EU has been a pioneer in environmental and health protection, inspiring others around the world to follow suit. However, the European Union's achievements are not just a thing of the past, but its attitude towards environmental protection is future-oriented. The preservation, protection and improvement of the quality of the environment, the protection of human health and the prudent and balanced utilisation of natural resources are objectives of the European Union's environmental policy. This policy is based on the precautionary principle, as well as on the principles that preventive action should be taken, that environmental damage should, as a priority, be rectified at source and, last but not least, that the polluter pays.

The European Union's Climate and Environmental Policy in Times of Geopolitical Crisis

The European Union's Climate and Environmental Policy in Times of Geopolitical Crisis

Will farmers go electric? How Dutch environmental regulation affects tractor purchase motivations and preferences

Farm machinery management can contribute to European agricultural, energy and environmental policy objectives of climate change mitigation and fossil fuel independence by investing in tractor electrification. However, many farmers in the Netherlands (and beyond) have expressed concerns about the future profitability and ability to produce at reasonable costs. The Netherlands is also in a so-called ‘nitrogen crisis’, which further causes policy uncertainty about the introduction of more environmental regulations for nitrogen abatement. We conducted a best-worst scaling survey experiment to elicit preferences for electric tractor attributes and measured attitudes towards environmental regulation using motivational posture theory. The ranking of and correlations across estimated preferences and the purchase intention show that the 156 dairy and arable farmers surveyed evaluated an investment in an electric tractor as not feasible. Another conclusion is that the breakthrough of electric tractors is affected by negative anticipated emotions and feelings concerning the current environmental policy and regulatory context.

Irrigation Investment and Agricultural Efficiency

The main scope of the paper is to make an empirical analysis regarding the relationship between irrigation and efficiency in agriculture sector, the use of water in irrigation and the share of agriculture sector in GDP related to European and world environmental policies, in the frame of water resource management and climate change conditions. We concluded there is a shy relationship between irrigation and agriculture crop. Furthermore, irrigation has no significant effects on GDP. The study is based on data collection using EUROSTAT and Romanian databases. We conclude that water management reform is necessary.

Economic Implications for Farmers in Adopting Climate Adaptation Measures in Italian Agriculture

The purpose of this paper is to provide an assessment of the economic convenience of adopting adaptation measures to climate change at farm level. Concerns raised about climate risks on agriculture indicate that adaptation of the agricultural sector to climate change is necessary to mitigate the negative consequences of climate change. Despite many opportunities to implement climate adaptation measures at farm level, there are several obstacles to their adoption. Farmers’ decision to implement adaptation measures lies in the difficulty of accessing knowledge about adaptation practices and in the lack of resources for upfront investments required by adaptation. The need to investigate economic convenience in terms of costs and benefits of adopting adaptation measures to prevent or reduce damage from adverse climatic events by farmers arises from this consideration. More importantly, climate protection and management of climate change are European environmental policy objectives. However, adaptation to climate change remains complex, and literature on the costs and benefit of agricultural adaptation is limited. Based on these considerations, this paper provides an analysis of the economic convenience of adopting adaptation measures in Italian farms. The economic convenience to implement adaptation measures is calculated on the reduction of the impact of climate damage. Our results show the economic convenience of adaptation measures. These findings help to improve the still too limited access to information on adaptation policies at farm level as well as the benefits that adaptation produces in economic and environmental terms, on human and ecosystem health. This study supports farmers’ decisions in adopting climate adaptation measures and provides information for policy makers to identify specific financial instruments for adaptation measures.

A conceptual model for enabling sustainable management of soil-sediment-water ecosystems in support of European policy

Abstract The health of soil-sediment-water ecosystems is under pressure from economic activities and a changing climate. This decreases health and hampers the service provision capacity of these ecosystems and thus impacts human well-being. Protecting and where feasible restoring of ecosystem health has currently become the key European environmental policy objective and for this it is needed to take an entire system approach and engage stakeholders. ‘Entire’ means that soil, sediment and water are regarded as closely interlinked environmental matrices that need to be managed by taking a ‘river (or mountain) to sea’ perspective, crossing spatial, discipline, political and cultural boundaries. This paper presents a conceptual model to support that purpose. Essentially, the conceptual model presents an approach for ecosystem-based management aimed to achieve healthy ecosystems, i.e. soil-sediment-water ecosystems that have the continued capacity to support ecosystem services to the benefit of their users. The model proposes a cyclic (iterative, learning-by-doing) approach and integrates soil-sediment-water, ecosystems, ecosystem services, users (stakeholders), pressures, information, management strategy and program of measures as building blocks. To successfully apply the model, it is above all needed to take an entrepreneurial approach, i.e. leave comfort zones, take an adventurous road, learn together to manage together, be adaptive and consider other than only command-and-control solutions. Furthermore, authorities should become facilitative leaders to engage users in co-creation of an ecosystem-based management strategy. Real live and place-based experimenting with multiple stakeholders, such as in the Living Labs and Lighthouses that are proposed in the EU soil mission, may provide an ideal instrument for such application, i.e. where the conceptual model can be used and support the achievement of European environmental policy objectives.

Circular manufacturing ecosystems: Automotive printed circuit boards recycling as an enabler of the economic development

ABSTRACT The management of waste from electrical and electronic equipments (WEEEs) is a well-established topic in the extant literature. However, also the automotive sector is becoming a relevant source of WEEE, given the even more relevant presence of electronic components in cars. Due to new European environmental policies, end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) volumes are expected to grow in the next future, together with obsolete car electronics components. Hence, this work wants to assess the potential economic impact derived from car electronics recycling processes adopting the Net Present Value (NPV) as reference indicator. Through a detailed sensitivity and break-even point (BEP) analysis and a comparison of different cases, this work identifies a set of scenarios useful for industrial actors willing to enter the market of car electronics recycling. Results show an NPV varying from 136,570 to 607,621 €/t with a decisive role played by gold recovery.

New Perspectives Regarding the Future of European Environmental Policy With Particular Regard of the Taxation Aspects

The European Union’s response to cushion the economic shock is divided into two parts, given the separation of competences at EU and nation state level. The global economy is increasingly recovering from the Corona crisis, but its effects continue to shape economic development. At the same time, the profound transformation towards a climate-neutral and digital economy must be shaped. National measures and strategies must be developed in the European and global context to effectively meet the challenges. Education over the entire life cycle should be strengthened. Accelerated digitalization offers great potentials that need to be leveraged. Sustainability must be ensured in various dimensions. International cooperation is crucial for successful climate protection. Higher private and public investments must be mobilized for transformation and increased productivity. In all of this, fiscal sustainability must be ensured.

Eco-Innovation Performance of Lithuania in the Context of European Environmental Policy: Eco-Innovation Indicators and Efficiency

The European Union (EU) has made eco-innovation and green technology a priority as they are essential to the continent’s long-term prosperity. To move towards sustainable economic growth, eco-innovation takes a significant role in the transition process. The aim of the article is to use the eco-innovation indicators as an instrument to measure the eco-innovation performance of Lithuania in the context of the EU Green Deal in order to analyze and assess the components and indicators of the eco-innovation index for Lithuania. Following the aim of the article, a set of research hypotheses will be formulated. The evaluation of eco-innovation indicators in Lithuania relative to EU countries using Eco-IS indicators, determination of eco-innovation efficiency using the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method, and identification of necessary eco-innovation policies for sustainable growth are the objectives of this paper. The research results present the positive impact of eco-innovation activities in the EU on Lithuania, and vice versa. Lithuania was affected positively by eco-innovation activities of other EU nations. The outcome of the study indicates its relevance by highlighting Lithuania’s position among the lowest countries in terms of eco-innovation adoption, hence new research pathways for the creation and implementation of policies to solve the current situation are provided.

Time of protection equivalence principle to allow design barrier layers for promoting the use of recycled materials for food contact

European and national environmental protection policies have programmed the forthcoming end of single-use plastics, including food packaging. Because plastic materials account for 50% of plastic waste, closed-loop recycling seems imperative. Still, plastics other than PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) are not widely recycled for food contact due to safety concerns. Among them, postconsumer polyolefins are heavily formulated, degraded, and contaminated by the previously contacting product. Using recycled materials behind a functional barrier (FB) could resolve the issue under specific provisions, but neither the European regulation nor the US FDA offer guidance concerning functional barriers evaluation and use. Mathematical modeling is the only viable method recognized by European and American agencies to evaluate recycled material under usage conditions. This study numerically explores the possibility of combining two effects: decontamination of the recycled material and a functional barrier to allow safe use of the recycled material.

The European Union facing climate change: a window of opportunity for technological development and entrepreneurship

The fight against climate change is one of the significant challenges of the 21st century. The European Union's environmental policy has evolved as the perception of the problem has become more evident. This paper examines the environmental commitments made by the European Union on the global scene to verify its involvement and responsibility in environmental policy. A comprehensive analysis of the European Union's environmental policies compared to other countries has been carried out using a comparative methodological framework of these commitments. The results confirm the European Union's leadership in promoting and implementing policies to combat climate change and environmental sustainability, which therefore opens windows of opportunity for technological development and entrepreneurship. Future lines of research are proposed following the conclusions, considering the current economic and environmental situation in an environment of energy crisis and inflation.

Life cycle assessment of a carbon capture utilization and storage supply chain in Italy and Germany: Comparison between carbon dioxide storage and utilization systems

The main purpose of this work is to verify that the CCUS supply chains at large scale that were developed in previous studies for Italy and Germany effectively reduce carbon emissions. The methodology of life cycle analysis was applied.Results showed that the annual global warming potential (GWP) for these supply chains in Italy and Germany are respectively 9.62 × 1010 kgCO2-eq and 1.94 × 1011 kgCO2-eq which would help enable these countries to achieve the carbon dioxide reduction target fixed by European environmental policies. Overall emissions in Italy and Germany are 249 Mtonne/year and 640 Mtonne/year, respectively.Sensitivity analysis results show that, for the supply chain in Germany, the GWP increases when, for a fixed amount of emissions captured, more carbon dioxide is sent to utilization: storage is then important to achieve the environmental target. Other impact categories decrease, increase or remain constant. On the other hand, for the supply chain in Italy, results showed that a lower environmental impact can be obtained by increasing the carbon utilization rate for methane production via a power to gas system. If this is implemented then this utilization system would a better solution from an environmentally point of view than the storage option with other utilization processes.