ABSTRACT
The European Union (EU) has established an impressive environmental policy. The effectiveness of most EU environmental policies has been hampered by the implementation deficit whereby policy intentions stand in stark contrast with policy reality. The chapter examines the relevance of environmental problems, the role of the EU in environmental politics, the problems of meeting EU environmental objectives, and the subnational regions' influence on EU environmental politics. Any assessment of the effectiveness of EU environmental policies, however, must include the evaluation of policy implementation within the Member States and their regions. The research compares two subnational regions, Scotland and Bavaria, and their implementation performances with EU environmental policies. It offers a multi-layered implementation map which guides the reader through the key government levels, highlights obstacles and facilitators in the implementation path, and explains why implementation deficits occur. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
