Environmental policies and problems of European legislation in Southern Europe

Pridham, Geoffrey

doi:10.1080/13608749608454716

Cited by 32 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Before Greece, Portugal and Spain joined the European Community in the 1980s, environmental policies had been only weakly developed. European policies became the determining factor in the development of their environmental regulatory structures through the downloading of EU directives (Pridham, 1996;Font and Morata, 1998;Spanou, 1998).…”

Section: Foot-draggingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Member State Responses to Europeanization

Börzel¹

2002

J of Common Market Studies

441

128

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Europeanization is a two-way process, which involves the evolution of European institutions that impact on political structures and processes of the Member States. This article develops an approach to link conceptually the two dimensions of Europeanization by focusing on the ways in which Member State governments both shape European policy outcomes and adapt to them. Member States have an incentive to 'upload' their policies to the European level to minimize the costs in 'downloading' them at the domestic level. But they differ in both their policy preferences and their action capacities. Accordingly, Member States have pursued different strategies in responding to Europeanization. The article draws on evidence from the field of EU environmental policy-making to illustrate when Member States are likely to engage in pace-setting, foot-dragging or fence-sitting. It concludes with some considerations on whether pace-setting, foot-dragging and fence-sitting give rise to interest coalitions, which pitch Member States of diverse levels of economic development against each other. * For comments and suggestions I am grateful to Simon Bulmer, Bridget Laffan, Helen Wallace, John Peterson and two anonymous reviewers.

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Section: Foot-draggingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Member State Responses to Europeanization

Börzel¹

2002

J of Common Market Studies

441

128

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“…Moreover, the results point to a potentially expanding trend of an urban-rural cleavage emerging in the fi eld of access to environmental information and e-government. Although a regional gradient of modernization and economic development in the EU is not a novelty (see La Spina and Sciortino, 1993;Pridham, 1996;Surazska et al, 1996;Pellegrini and Gerlagh, 2006), the case of domestic inequalities with access to information and e-government points to an additional urban-rural heterogeneity within the already heterogeneous EU. Referring to what was said about the role of access to information earlier, the defi ciencies in application of the principle probably diminish an overall capacity for democratic governance wherever obstacles in the information accessibility occur.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

International ideal and local practice – access to environmental information and local government in Poland

Banaś¹

2009

Env Pol Gov

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Access to information plays an important part in modern governance and is vital for sustainability, as envisaged in Agenda 21, the Aarhus Convention and EU environmental law. Given a shortage of relevant studies dedicated to CEE countries, this paper presents empirical evidence regarding application of the international principle of access to information at the very bottom of administrative hierarchy in one of the largest CEE states. Taking into account the great variety of Polish municipalities with respect to their demographic, economic, environmental and urban characteristics, the paper examines practical access to very basic environmental information. The paper scrutinizes one particular type of information while referring to different modes of accessibility. Survey and interview based data shows to what extent the principle is already adopted at the local level, to what extent e-government is utilized to secure the provision of information and whether an urban-rural cleavage occurs in this respect.

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“…According to some observers '[o]nly the accession of Spain into the EC in 1986 led to the inclusion of the environment on the political agenda' (Morata & Font, 1998, p. 214). Moreover, administrative responsibilities were fragmented and public and general legal awareness of environmental problems weak (Pridham, 1996;Morata & Font, 1998). Taking into account the low political salience of environmental issues at the time, the lack of a Ministry of Environment and, perhaps more importantly, only limited experience in environmental management, enacting the environmental acquis 'caused severe administrative blockage' (Pridham, 1996).…”

Section: The Costs Of Weak Administrative Structuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Along with Italy, Portugal and Greece, Spain received a large number of warning letters and reasoned opinions during the late 1980s and early 1990s (Pridham, 1996;Jordan, 1998;Börzel, 2000). Over the 20-year period from 1978 to 1997, Spain scored well above EU average measured by the number of infringement proceedings under Article 169 (Tallberg, 1999, pp.…”

Section: The Implementation Deficitmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…10 Some observers have characterized the reluctant approach towards environmental issues and compliance problems in typecast terms such as the 'Mediterranean Syndrome' (La Spina & Sciortino, 1993) and the 'Iberian Trap'. 11 However, others have objected to such diagnoses on grounds that there is no conclusive evidence of a disease, referring, for example, to Spain's rather positive record on formal implementation (Pridham, 1996;Börzel, 2000). Still, it has been countered that 'putting the legal acquis on the books merely set up a strong claim by the new members for massive transfers (Cohesion Fund) to enable them to actually abide by the laws' (Hager, 2000, p. 6).…”

Section: Leaders and Laggardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The shadow of the past: environmental issues and institutional learning in EU enlargement processes

Christiansen¹,

Tangen²

2002

Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning

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This paper compares the role of environmental issues in negotiating Spanish membership of the European Union (EU) with the ongoing enlargement talks with Central and Eastern European countries. The paper first argues that the EU has recognized a need to change the way in which it has traditionally managed environmental issues in enlargement processes. Second, the paper provides evidence of learning processes at the Community level that could have effected a change in Community approaches to enlargement in the environmental field. However, the paper shows that the fundamental principles and procedures applied in preparing for eastern enlargement match those used in previous enlargement rounds, resembling a largely technical exercise with exclusive focus on the applicants' ability to align with the acquis communautaire and the length of transition periods. The lack of sufficient adaptation or reform suggests that path dependence and institutional inertia have constrained the scope for innovations at the level of policy strategy and institutions, for which the shadow of the past has reinforced established patterns of institutional behaviour and practices.

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Environmental policies and problems of European legislation in Southern Europe

Cited by 32 publications

References 9 publications

Member State Responses to Europeanization

Member State Responses to Europeanization

International ideal and local practice – access to environmental information and local government in Poland

The shadow of the past: environmental issues and institutional learning in EU enlargement processes

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