This book offers a window into the mechanisms that drive events when countries with poor track records in environmental protection and low administrative capacity, join an organisation with ambitious environmental regulatory regimes, which include some of the highest environmental protections standards in the world. This book examines the institutional building capacity in Romania after two decades of the development of the EU's environmental policy on elaboration, transposition, implementation, monitoring and institutional building. The book examines how Romania has fared as one of the least environmentally friendly EU member states, and poses the following questions. What are the limits of Europeanisation in the area of public policies? What is the reason why, despite the overwhelming public interest in environmental issues, and widespread agreement that urgent action to protect the environment and prevent catastrophic climate change are paramount, the pace of achieving the goals is remains slow. Why do policies fail? This book brings together several case studies focusing on the evolution of environmental policies in Romania over the last twenty years, with a special focus on the post-accession period (2007 onwards). The book provides an analysis of policies, where progress is less than satisfactory, and examines why this is the case.

The continuing development of the European Union (EU) is transforming policy and politics in its member countries, and possibly in an even larger number of potential members. This book offers a detailed investigation of the Europeanization of national environmental policy in ten western European countries since 1970. By blending state-of-the-art theories with fresh empirical material on the many manifestations of Europeanization, it sheds new light on the dynamics that are decisively reshaping national environmental policy. It also offers an original assessment of how far Europeanization has produced greater policy convergence in western Europe. Throughout, the approach taken is genuinely comparative, drawing on the insights provided by leading country specialists.

Reflecting the concerns over environmental sustainability, there has been an increasing focus on the protection of our water resources and on the proper management of our waste. Our economic growth can only be sustainable when it does not represent a threat to human health and to fauna, flora, and eco-system in the long-term. A long-term resilience, new business and economic opportunities, and environmental sustainability can be achieved through circular economy model that offers us a world of opportunity to rethink and redesign our economic activities and consumption patterns. With an aim to give the reader a new perspective on this issue, this book covers European Union’s water and waste management legislation and the Czech Republic’s transposition of this legislation, and includes a comparative analysis of the performances of the EU Member States on the implementation of new water and waste management policy strategies.

For many observers, the European Union is mired in a deep crisis. Between sluggish growth; political turmoil following a decade of austerity politics; Brexit; and the rise of Asian influence, the EU is seen as a declining power on the world stage. Columbia Law professor Anu Bradford argues the opposite in her important new book The Brussels Effect: the EU remains an influential superpower that shapes the world in its image. By promulgating regulations that shape the international business environment, elevating standards worldwide, and leading to a notable Europeanization of many important aspects of global commerce, the EU has managed to shape policy in areas such as data privacy, consumer health and safety, environmental protection, antitrust, and online hate speech. And in contrast to how superpowers wield their global influence, the Brussels Effect - a phrase first coined by Bradford in 2012- absolves the EU from playing a direct role in imposing standards, as market forces alone are often sufficient as multinational companies voluntarily extend the EU rule to govern their global operations. The Brussels Effect shows how the EU has acquired such power, why multinational companies use EU standards as global standards, and why the EU's role as the world's regulator is likely to outlive its gradual economic decline, extending the EU's influence long into the future.

This brand new textbook provides a concise and informative overview of environmental policy and politics in the European Union. It includes a thorough analysis of the traditional areas of environmental concern such as pollution and natural resources, as well as newer environmental issues, including GMOs and climate change. Throughout this clear and readable introduction, the authors emphasize the interdependence between EU environmental policy and changes at the global level, focusing in particular on the EU's role in global environmental governance. The authors' didactic approach means this text will be invaluable to undergraduate and postgraduate students of environmental politics, policies and governance in the EU as well as MA programmes with a global focus, including international relations and EU studies.

This book examines environmental policy change in twenty-eight Central and Eastern European and Latin American countries against a background of significant political and economic transformation over the past two decades. Through cross-regional comparison and a multi-methods approach, Jale Tosun investigates changes in the regulation of air, soil, and water pollution, genetically modified corn, and the sustainable management of forests. Tosun also looks at the relationship between system transformation and the creation of environmental procuracies in both parts of the world. Environmental Policy Change in Emerging Market Democracies demonstrates that, although political and economic transformations have positively affected environmental policy in both regions, the extent of policy change varies considerably across Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America. At the same time, as Tosun argues, economic integration has acted as a major driver of a stronger governmental enforcement commitment as expressed by the creation of environmental procuracies.

Prior to the European Union (EU) 2004/2007 enlargement there were several predictions that this event would hamper progressive decision-making within the EU on environmental policy. It was believed that the new member states had adopted EU rules as a consequence of the EU's conditionality and consequently they would rather slow down the reform speed in the field after accession. In this book, Mats Braun offers an up-to-date account of how post-communist member states have handled policy initiatives in the field of environmental policy after accession. Using detailed case studies of how Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania dealt with two different EU policy initiatives - REACH and the Climate-Energy Package - he explores whether social norms and the process of socialization can help us understand why the track record of new member states in the area of environmental policy is more varied than was originally envisaged prior to enlargement.