ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the introduction of such a higher norm, subsidiarity, has actually made a difference both to substantive policy-making and institutional competences. It suggests that looking at the question of subsidiarity and how the institutions have managed its discursive application, tends to reveal a balance of institutional power which favours intergovernmentalist interests. The subsidiarity issue was decanted into the much more stable 'vessel' of a discussion about a new form of regulatory intervention, one redolent of neo-liberalist, anti-bureaucratic imagery and language. The subsidiarity 'process' certainly displays greater opportunities than ever before for the member states to secure a re-nationalisation of environmental standards. One of the most telling critiques of current European Union (EU) environmental policy is that contained within the European Environmental Bureau's 'Memorandum to the Irish Presidency and the EU Member States'. The move towards 'soft law' may be fundamentally a move which is internationally being experienced within national environmental regimes.
