ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the case study on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive in detail the complex and often problematic filtering process of a typical European Union environmental policy. The EIA Directive followed a cumbersome bargaining process which involved a wide range of actors pursuing a variety of interests through formal and informal communication channels. With the EIA Directive, European Community policy-makers entered new territory by setting environmental standards in the planning policy area, an area that had been the exclusive domain of national and subnational actors. The chapter investigates some steps of implementation in the national and subnational layers and assesses how and to what extent implementors in Scotland and Bavaria have processed and influenced the EIA Directive. It aims to compare implementation performances in Scotland and Bavaria and contrast their performances with experiences in the United Kingdom and Germany at large.
