Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
15
The politics of trade and environment in the
European Union
Henrik Selin and Stacy D. VanDeveer
Introduction
What is today the European Union (EU) began with the founding of the European Coal
and Steel Community in 1952 (Richardson, 2006). The signing of the Treaties of Rome in
1957, entering into force in 1958, built on this e
ort and created the European Economic
Community and the European Atomic Energy Community, respectively. Following a
period of
ff
ed
European political and economic integration with the adoption of several treaties amend-
ing the Treaties of Rome started in the mid-1980s. The Single European Act - signed in
1986 and entering into force in 1987 - expanded the Community's legal competence on
environmental issues and set the goal of creating a single internal market by removing
remaining physical,
slower regional policy developments in the 1960s and 1970s, intensi
fi
scal and technical barriers to trade among member states.
The Treaty on European Union - often referred to as the Maastricht Treaty after the
Dutch city where it was adopted - entered into force in 1993 and created the EU. The
Maastricht Treaty developed the roles and legal competences of the main EU organiza-
tions, and expanded the process of European integration into new political issue areas.
The Treaty of Amsterdam, which was signed in 1997 and entered into force in 1999, facil-
itated further membership enlargement and deepening integration, including on environ-
mental policy issues. The Treaty of Nice was adopted in December 2000 and entered into
force in 2003. This treaty paved the way for a series of organizational reforms to adapt the
EU to a host of new member states in 2004 and 2007. The EU is still 'less' than a tradi-
tional nation-state, but it is also much 'more' than any other intergovernmental organi-
zation (Schmidt, 2004).
The expansion of free trade within the internal market has been a core objective of
European integration e
fi
orts since the creation of the European Economic Community.
Recent EU treaties also recognize the necessity of environmental protection measures.
Environmental policy-making is important for many issues of deepening integration:
many environmental issues are transboundary; environmental policy goals intersect with
the functioning of the internal market through the harmonization of standards and reg-
ulations and the ful
ff
llment of economic and social goals; and much environmental
policy-making competence has been transferred from national governments to the EU
level (Weale, 1996; Weale et al., 2003; Jordan and Lie
fi
erink, 2004). As such, there are
many areas where trade and environment issues overlap as the EU seeks to move down a
path of sustainable development (European Commission, 2002).
ff
EU policy-making and implementation
As of 1 January 2007, the EU consists of 27 member countries (see Table 15.1). Three
more countries (Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Turkey) are engaged in formal
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