EU Environmental Policy ─ Its Journey to Centre Stage

Having been created for reasons quite unconnected with the environment, the EU has been given a compelling new justification by the success of its environmental policy. A number of factors – including a number of environmental threats that came to prominence in the 1980s, and the new concept of 'sustainable development' – are responsible for pushing EU environmental policy to the forefront of the EU’s agenda.

Nigel Haigh, a leading authority on the development and implementation of EU environmental policy, traces the evolution of this policy from obscurity to centrality. Drawing on a range of articles and lectures, he demonstrates how the EU has not only adapted itself to take on entirely new subject matter, but also has contributed to solving problems which individual Member States could not have dealt with on their own. The book also goes on to contextualise the issues throughout its history and offers insight into the future role of the EU in environmental matters.

This book is a valuable resource for academics and scholars as well as professionals and policy makers in the areas of environment and sustainability, politics, international relations and European affairs.

Nigel Haigh OBE is Honorary Fellow of the Institute for European Environmental Policy. He opened its London office in 1980 and was Director until 1998.