Born in 1973 of dual Community objectives - providing public goods while simultaneously completing the common market - there is widespread agreement that the subsequent development of EC environmental policy represents one of the most successful areas of European integration. Throughout the past twenty-five years the European Community has developed an impressive array of environmental regulations, and established itself as a main player in international environmental negotiations (Vogel 1993, Sbragia 1996a, 1996b). Community commitment to environmental policy has periodically been reaffirmed and strengthened in five Environmental Action Programmes, blueprints for the over 300 directives and regulations now in force. A similar expansion of activity has taken place in the international arena, with the Community now a party to several dozen environmental agreements.