ABSTRACT
Environmental policy is not seen as a natural bedfellow for social democratic parties. It would therefore appear that the development of socialist environmental policy might not be as easy as the creation of an EU-wide employment strategy. Although tackling environmental problems can be seen as social democratic (see Chapter 1), it is often seen as an issue that transcends ‘left’ and ‘right’. However, environmental problems also transcend national borders, making it an ideal policy for EU action. It is therefore interesting to examine in detail which parties were pushing for a PES environment policy and what the policy would look like – in short, whether the PES could create policy in this area.
