ABSTRACT
This chapter describes and analyses the evolution of the European Community’s (EC’s) environmental policy. The chosen time frame covers the period from January 1958, when the Treaty of Rome came into effect, to ‘1992’, the target date for the completion of the Single European Act (SEA) which entered into force on 1 July 1987.1
It is often stated that, prior to 1973, there was no EC environmental policy. In principle this assessment is correct. Nevertheless, a number of pieces of environmental legislation had been adopted during that period. For that reason and in order to present an historically and analytically complete picture, the entire period will be assessed here.
