ABSTRACT
This is not to deny that the Commission has a key role to play in enforcement of EC environmental law. On the contrary, there are some good reasons to support the view that this should remain the case. In particular, given its supranational and therefore central institutional status within the polity of the EU, the Commission is arguably well-suited to ensuring that Member States’ national laws accord with EC environmental legislation. The system employed from the outset of the EU to require Member States to notify the Commission of their national legislation designed to implement EC directives is both logical and effective. The Commission’s services are in a good position to supervise and ensure that the transposition of EC environmental directives is carried out by Member States. Independent from Member State interests, the Commission’s role of scrutinising national transposition legislation gives Member States confidence that supervision will be carried out on the basis of equal treatment and more effectively than would be the case under a system of peer review between the Member States themselves.
