Implementation of the European Municipal Waste Incineration Directive (89/429/EEC): Lessons From Four Member States

Researchers and policy‐makers accept that implementation decisively influences the effectiveness of European (EU) environmental policy. Member states follow a variety of compliance (or non‐compliance) paths. Whilst in a few leading states domestic legislation tends to pre‐empt EU controls, implementation gaps and policy failures are also prevalent. What are the reasons for these differences? Why do member states follow different compliance paths? Why do implementation gaps and policy failures occur? What factors can explain the different policy outcomes achieved? What lessons can be drawn for the future? This paper addresses these questions through a comparative analysis of the implementation of the European Directive on the Reduction of Air Pollution from Existing Municipal Waste Incineration Plants (89/429/EEC) in four Member States: Germany, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom. Monitoring and enforcement are found to have only limited explanatory power. National contextual variables, such as public and political environmental awareness, interactions both with environmental and non‐environmental policies, regulatory anticipation and uncertainty, the degree of autonomy and scope of regulatory agencies and the industrial and market structure of the regulated industry, must also be considered. On the basis of this analysis a number of conclusions are derived for the future design of environmental policies