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It is widely acknowledged that policies for a more sustainable society require narratives outside the status quo. This contribution studies the EU's environmental policy narrative of a circular economy (CE), which many consider promising in this respect. The results demonstrate that the CE narrative was created to transform EU policy discourses 'from within' but eventually perpetuated the established discourse of ecological modernization. This perpetuation resulted from specific strategic practices used to create the CE narrative, which (1) concealed conflict, (2) strengthened the agency of incumbents, and (3) excluded alternative voices. The analysis uses empirical evidence from 28 interviews with key stakeholders, 84 policy documents and participant observation data at the European Union (EU) level. The results suggest that the development of narratives outside the status quo depends on strategic practices that address (future) conflicts and offer new agency to change agents as well as transition strategies to incumbents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The leadership dynamics between the European Council, the Council and the Member States in European Union (EU) environmental policy since the 1970s are analysed. The puzzle is that, although the EU was set up as a 'leaderless Europe', it is widely seen as an environmental leader, albeit sometimes as a one-eyed leader amongst the blind. While differentiating between leadership types, it is argued that the European Council has the largest structural, the Council the most significant entrepreneurial, and the Member States the most important cognitive and exemplary leadership capacities. Most day-to-day environmental policy measures are negotiated by the Environment Council (in collaboration with the European Parliament). The European Council's increased interest in high politics climate change issues is largely due to the EU's global leadership ambitions. Member States have traditionally formed environmental leadership alliances on an ad hoc basis although this may be changing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, innovative governance architectures have been progressively promoted across European Union (EU) environmental and climate policies with the purpose of improving the effectiveness of intervention through better cross-sectoral policy integration and increased involvement of sub-state and non-governmental actors in the policy process. By combining the theoretical insights of polycentric governance and the concept of usage, the case of the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) is analysed to uncover the extent to which this voluntary programme has empowered local authorities within the EU strategy for sustainable energy by encouraging coordination and learning. This illustrates how a range of policy variables determined the dynamics of the programme's implementation in Italy and the United Kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ways in which climate adaptation is understood in the European Union is examined via three key policy documents: the Strategy on adaptation and the Green and White Papers that preceded it. Drawing on Poststructuralist Discourse Theory, light is shed on the implicit values and assumptions that underpin this recent policy initiative. The findings demonstrate a tension between the declared ambition to act on adaptation and implicit suggestions that nothing really has to change, and the challenge can be addressed by market and technological innovations, and by mainstreaming adaptation into existing sectoral policies. The policy discourse effectively serves to depoliticize choices societies make in response to climate change, presenting adaptation as a non-political issue. Insight into European adaptation discourse enables deeper understanding of recent policy developments and opens up possible entry points for critique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Union (EU) climate/energy targets and policies are poised for the first full climate policy cycle - from adoption and implementation of the policy package for 2020, to reform for 2030. A dynamic approach to the ways in which EU policies affect policy development is developed by applying theories of domestic implementation, policy feedback and integration. Implementation experiences in Poland - the ‘least climate ambitious’ EU member state - affected Polish preferences for reformed EU policies. Existing EU policies, their ‘fit’ with Poland’s energy interests and change in anticipation of future EU policies explain much of the variation in preferences. Second, policy feedback from Poland significantly affected the EU 2030 climate and energy framework. As yet, the EU has succeeded only partly in gathering momentum through a ‘snowball’ effect whereby positive policy feedback from implementation generates further steps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate finance constitutes an integral part of the European Union’s climate policy. Yet, climate policy is increasingly addressed by non-environmental institutions. In examining the transfer of climate finance from the Environment Council to the Council for Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN) in spring 2009, I analyse how climate finance has been framed in ECOFIN. Two finance ministerial framings quickly became intrinsic to ECOFIN and had a substantial influence on climate finance decisions: securing an effective response to climate change and limiting public expenditure. While policy entrepreneurs managed to build a consensus on most issues around an effective response to climate change, Member States at the October 2009 ECOFIN Council could not agree on a joint position due to some Member States’ emphasis on limiting expenditure. Only the European Council was capable of resolving the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the agenda released by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the concerns raised by the environmental non-governmental organization Green 10 regarding a lack of clear environmental agenda. Issues include the merger of the climate change and energy portfolios under the Energy Union team, the 7th Environmental Action Programme's call for environmental policies to be integrated into all policy areas, and alleged possible weakening of biodiversity protection.

In environmental governance, the European Union draws on norms of effectiveness, decentralisation, and participation to ensure that its policies and regulations are considered legitimate. This article analyses how the construction of legitimacy in European nature policy has changed over time. Although the norms of participation and decentralisation are increasingly evoked to address the needs of stakeholders and member states in the implementation and financing of Natura 2000, the norm of effectiveness continues to dominate the construction of legitimacy. Effectiveness first acquired its meaning in the context of a science-based approach to Natura 2000 to emphasise the importance of achieving its conservation objectives. More recently, it has become increasingly re-articulated as cost-effectiveness, which reflects a growing influence of neoliberal discourse. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for the legitimacy of European environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The European Parliament has been heralded as a champion of environmental policy within the European Union. However, there have been few recent studies of the European Parliament's treatment of environmental legislation, despite the many changes that have taken place within the EU. To correct this oversight all European Parliament amendments to environmental co-decision legislation between 1999 and 2009 have been classified according to their environmental importance and analysed to determine how the chamber's behaviour has changed over time and which factors shape its success. The European Parliament appears to have become both less radical and less successful in incorporating strong green amendments into legislation, and the European Commission emerges as a central explanation for the European Parliament's ability to do so. Despite the Commission's reputation as a partner seeking to advance the environmental agenda, it does not appear inclined to support the European Parliament's attempts to green legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigation of the conditions under which formal stakeholder consultations of the Directorate General Energy of the European Commission can help integrate climate change policy in energy policy in the European Union suggests that stakeholder consultations that aim at producing soft law and binding recommendations are rather insular, have low diversity of participants, and do not integrate climate change issues. Forums that aim at providing a discussion platform have higher diversity and integrate climate change issues to a certain extent. Stakeholder consultations can facilitate climate policy integration in European Union energy policy, as they take place early in the policy process. However, integration requires political commitment, and a concrete structure and format of the consultations that would facilitate integration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Towards the end of the last decade, the European Union passed a regulation banning seal products from the European common market. The final legislation deviated from the European Commission's more flexible proposal on key issues, and was therefore not an obvious outcome. Why did the Commission choose to support a conditional ban on seal products in the original proposal, and then why did the European Parliament later reverse the proposal in the second round. To explain the two different outcomes, the types of arguments put forward in the negotiations are analysed and their effectiveness at the different stages of the process is assessed. By identifying four ideal-types of arguments adhering to one of four logics, namely, appropriateness, justification, arguing, or consequentiality, I illustrate how arguments made following the logic of arguing were the most effective in the Commission, while arguments pertaining to a logic of appropriateness were most important in the Parliament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The politics of EU renewable energy policy and legislation is analysed and an apparent paradox investigated. The liberalising philosophy of the internal market inspired an electricity liberalisation law in the mid-1990s. Continued support for neoliberal instruments (especially in key departments of the European Commission) further bolstered Commission plans to introduce a quota and certificate scheme. Despite this support, such schemes were rejected by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers in the legislative process leading up to the renewable energy laws of 2001 and 2009. The article investigates this apparent paradox using an analytical research framework based on discursive institutionalism. Relying on textual analysis and extensive interviews, it argues that the Commissions preference for Tradable Green Certificates can primarily be attributed to its conformity with the market-oriented macro-discourse dominant in EU institutions, and shared by a substantial discursive issue network. The opposing coalition, however, was able to build a discourse around subsidiarity, good governance and flexibility that ultimately swayed the Parliament and Council. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How has Europeanisation of environmental policy, as represented by the adoption of European Union (EU) biodiversity policies, influenced the agendas and repertoires of action employed by environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) in Hungary, Poland and Romania? The EU's environmental acquis gave ENGOs new and often forceful tools to reach their aims by emphasising the importance of collaborative relations between state and non-state actors and by offering opportunities to civil society actors to circumvent their national governments in the policy process. Implementation of the EU's Natura 2000 network in Hungary, Poland and Romania further reinforced endogenously driven professionalisation and institutionalisation of civil society groups. While EU accession benefited from the expertise of professional ENGOs, the logic of the accession process together with the weakness of both state actors and civil society has not led to the development of sustainable cooperative state-society relations in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory and analysis of regulation provides an understanding of climate change regulation and its limitations leading to the identification of political strategies to improve such regulation by orientating it more towards public interest objectives. Public interest and private interest theories of regulation are considered together with regime theory, which understands regulatory regimes as dynamic interactions of a variety of forces that can be altered by external pressure. One possible pressure is governmental action to increase regime transparency. UK and EU climate change regulation is used to consider whether increased transparency, in particular focused around a carbon price-based instrument with quantified emissions reductions, can shift the climate regime towards meeting the public interest. This runs up against difficulties of sociocultural plurality and the one-dimensional nature of the price mechanism. More successful strategy requires a price-based instrument coupled to transparent complementary policies and regulations that address sociocultural pluralities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the possible implications of eastern Europe enlargement for European Union (EU) environmental policy from the applicant states' perspective based on the four Visegrád countries (V4). Domestic factors that influence the approach of V4 countries to EU environmental policy; Environmental policy institution relevant to EU accession according to experts interviewed in V4 and EU countries; Information on V4 international environmental strategies.

Examines the implication of European Union (EU) accession for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) environmental transition. Information on capacity limitations in governmental, non-governmental and private sectors across CEE countries to meet the demands and requisites in the transition towards EU accession; Limitations of EU environmental policies; Importance of civil society and non-governmental organizations.

Discusses the participation of the European Union (EU) elites and non-governmental organizations (NGO) on environmental policy process in Central and Eastern Europe. Importance of informal political processes in the EU; Roles that national and sectoral interests can play in Europe; Perception of EU elites on environmental NGO.

Discusses the impact of the accession of several Central and Eastern European countries in the European Union (EU) on the future environmental leadership and policy performance of the EU. History of European integration and enlargement; Economic differences in per capita levels of wealth among EU countries; Changes in EU environmental institutions and policy making procedures as a result of the expansion of the union.

Focuses on the changes in political and environmental policies and related institutions as driven by eastern enlargement of the European Union (EU). Impact of the political changes on the rights and responsibilities of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) citizens; Effects of economic transitions on environmental politics, policy and quality; Information on the EU assistance provided for CEE countries.

Examines whether the study of regime-effectiveness contributes to address the problem with the causal relationships between the environmental policy of the European Union (EU) and the state of the European environment. Focus of a typical study of the EU environmental policy; Importance of regime analysis perspective in understanding the effect of the interaction between EU directives and international environmental regimes; Limitations in the domestic context.

Reports on the treaty negotiated and signed by 15 European political leaders at the December 2000 European Council following an intergovernmental conference (IGC). Primary rationale for the treaty; Two most contentious issues that arose during the IGC; Condemnation of the treaty by major European environmental groups.

Discusses the role of the European Environmental Advisory Councils in the member states of the European Union. Meeting of the councils at Brussels, Belgium in 1993 which usher the first step towards addressing the issue related to decision-making affecting the environment; Framework for future co-operation; Types of the advisory councils.

Deals with the lobbying activities of environmental non-governmental organizations (NGO) in Brussels, Belgium. Discussion on their influence to the decision-making related to environment of the member countries of the European Union; Definition of lobbying activities of the environmental NGO; Basics for a successful lobbying campaign; Future of lobbying.

Discusses the European Union (EU) environmental policy. Pushers and forerunners in EU environmental policy; Self-perception of the `green' member states; Run-up to the Amsterdam Treaty.

Describes the provenance of the June 1997 European Council (EC) meeting held in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, to revise the founding Treaties of the European Union (EU). Details on the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference Agenda; Environmental policy of EC after the Amsterdam meeting; Research agenda of the EC.

Focuses on Denmark and the Netherlands in addressing the issue of national freedom in the European Union (EU) environmental policy. Legal framework for EU environmental policy; Exemptions from EU rules; National freedom of action in Denmark and the Netherlands; Internal interest and national strategy in Denmark and the Netherlands; Internal conflicts over choice of strategy.

Considers why the European Union appears to have shifted from an expansionary environmental era of the late 1980s and early 1990s to a period of retrenchment in the late 1990s. Impact of the Inter-Governmental Conference on environmental policy; Sustainable development; Reform of European Union institutions.

Looks at steps being taken within the European Commission towards integrating the environment into other European Union policy sectors. Sustainable development; Outline of the Fifth Environmental Action Programme; European Commission's integration procedures.

Discusses the European Union membership and its implications to its environmental policy. Strain environmental policy since Rio Summit in 1992; Important role of forest sector and related industries to resource-oriented economies; Absence of exposure to nuclear accidents of member states.