ABSTRACT
On 1 January 1993, as a result of the Maastricht amendments to the European Treaties, all nationals of Member States acquired under the Treaty something called citizenship of the European Union. This chapter argues that there are some deeper issues concerning the way that the Treaty is currently structured and has been characterized in law. It states that that there are conceptual impossibilities to formulating an individual right to the environment in general terms which has any legally meaningful sense. When it comes to specific items of Community environmental legislation concerning environmental quality, the European Court of Justice has been prepared to characterize certain provisions as giving individual environmental rights. Yet in its formal institutional mechanisms for ensuring the Member States implement their obligations under Community law, the European Community has clearly established a far deeper and potentially more effective structure than anything yet devised under other international arrangements.
