ABSTRACT
The Community has been increasingly preoccupied post-Maastricht with ensuring "better lawmaking" and the Commission's current strategy to improve the implementation and enforcement of Community environmental law stresses the importance of coordination through the "regulatory chain". This chapter focuses on the following stages in the regulatory chain: formulation of legislation, transposition of legislation into national legal orders, practical application of Community obligations at a national level, enforcement, and evaluation and review of legislation. The Commission's approach of fostering greater coordination within the regulatory chain is a worthy one which stresses the importance of the various players involved in the entire chain. By making available more environmental data to the general public and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), it is to be hoped that individuals and pressure groups will both apply political pressure and, if necessary, take judicial action to enforce Community rights and obligations.
