ABSTRACT
This study focuses on EC environmental policy, and its legal recognition as part of European policy with the signing of the Single European Act. The environmental policy of the EC has its roots in traditional neo-classical economic approaches, and emphasises the concept of the negative external effect, which should be neutralised by government policies. However, it is extremely difficult, and in many cases impossible, to give a market price to the environment. Traditional neo-classical economics focus on topics such as per capita income, employment and the level of production. This implies that environmental aims are very often marginalised by vested economic interests, and using these traditional arguments the polluting industries are not the weakest among these interests. In the EC this divergence between the interests of production on the one hand, and the unpriced production factor ‘natural resources’ on the other hand, has not been solved till now. The solution of this problem is only possible if labour and capital no longer misuse the production factor ‘natural resources’, but understand, both of them, that a sound environment favours production possibilities in the future. The Single European Act contains the conceptual framework to realise this understanding.
