ABSTRACT
Member States may subscribe to the concept of the supremacy of Community law and the need for better implementation, but are reluctant to accept interference with national administrative arrangements for enforcement. This chapter considers the mechanisms associated with the implementation and enforcement of Community environmental legislation, with "implementation" denoting the process by which legal obligations under Community law are fulfilled, while "enforcement" implies the methods available to ensure that implementation takes place. It concerns the use of the Article 169 enforcement procedures by the European Commission. The formal legal procedures available to the Commission in persuading a Member State to comply with Community obligations, derive from Article 169 EEC, and as such are common to all areas of Community policy. The Commission's own achievements to date in revealing the extent to which deficiencies of implementation exist within most Member States underlines the continuing importance of the issue.
