European environmental policy by stealth: the dysfunctionality of functionalism?

Abstract. There are four paradoxes to be explained in respect of European Union (EU) environmental policy: how it is that a liberal policy regime makes relatively little use of economic instruments; how it is that the formally independent Commission is heavily dependent upon member states in the development of its policy proposals; how it is that a 'weak ' European Parliament has had greater influence on environmental standard setting than have most national parliaments; and how it is that a supranational political authority regulates subnational environmental public goods so extensively. The author argues that these four features of EU environmental policy are related to one another as the effects of a common cause: the historical importance of the Monnet method of European integration. How far this method should be transcended is also discussed. Consider the following (paradoxical) features of European Union (EU) environmental policy: (1) The EU is an international organisation founded on liberal principles, including the free movement of goods, services, capital, and people. Yet in its approach to environmental policy it has made little use of economic instruments; less use indeed than have some countries more closely identified with social democracy than wit