ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the sites of political contestation in complex multilevelled governance systems. As such, it provides a relative indicator of their policy-making power. While the field of research around the term Europeanization has still not reached a mature stage, it has none the less provided important and puzzling insights into the changing nature of MLG. Governance is definitely a term in good currency. But it has also been described as a ‘notoriously slippery’ one; multiple meanings and competing definitions abound. Since the 1990s, the EU has introduced several NEPIs while promoting their broader use in member states. The growing interest in the domestic impacts of European integration has made ‘Europeanization’ something of a ‘hot topic’ in EU scholarship. The EU’s role in facilitating and/or retarding the shift to NEPIs is quite intriguing. Regulation remains the mainstay of EU environmental policy in spite of substantial NEPI adoption at the national level.
