Preface
This Manual is intended to provide a complete account of EU environmental policy. Every item of EU environmental legislation is therefore, of course, included, but since the EU Treaties say that ‘environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the definition and implementation of Union policies and activities, in particular with a view to promoting sustainable development’, the Manual must also include an account of how environmental policy is being integrated into other EU policies, such as those for agriculture, transport and energy. The EU’s sustainable development strategy is thus also included in addition to the environmental action programme. Not only are the policy documents and legislation described and analysed but there is also an account of how EU policy is developed by the relevant institutions. EU involvement in international conventions is also covered. The Manual therefore sheds light on how the EU works as well as its resulting policies.
When dealing with individual items of EU legislation, a particular feature is that a summary is accompanied by an account of how the legislation came to be adopted. Such a history is difficult to find elsewhere but is often helpful in shedding light on the problems that arise when the legislation is being implemented. Reports on implementation are listed as well as relevant cases before the Court, so a reader in any one country can learn about problems and successes in others.
To construct such a Manual would today be almost impossible without previous work such as that done by IEEP over the years. In 1980, when I opened IEEP’s London office I was asked by Konrad von Moltke, the founding Director in Bonn, to write an extended essay on the impact of EU environmental policy in Britain. This turned into a book ‘EEC Environmental Policy and Britain’ (1984) which analysed the rather few items of EU environmental legislation then existing. An enlarged second edition followed in 1987 and was reprinted with postscripts in the following years to keep pace with the steady volume of new legislation. In 1991 the book became the basis of a loose-leaf Manual published in 1992 under the title ‘Manual of Environmental Policy: the EU and Britain’ which was regularly updated until 2009. The names of the many who contributed to this work are set out in the Acknowledgements. The new Manual under a new name is a continuation of this previous work. It is intended for readers throughout Europe and indeed beyond.
I am proud to have been asked to chair the distinguished Editorial Board who will provide oversight of this new tool for understanding the EU’s most popular policy area.
Nigel Haigh
Chairman of the Editorial Board
March 2010