ABSTRACT
This chapter builds on the first two chapters in considering the status of the Community principles referred to in the first chapter and listed below, in relation to the process of implementing and enforcing Community law and policy on the environment. Additionally and in the first part of the chapter consideration is given to what is capable of implementation and enforcement by way of standards and targets. As such this first part of the chapter not only builds on elements of the first two chapters but also anticipates much of what appears in the remaining chapters. The principles are widely defined and include proportionality, the precautionary principle, the preventative principle, the polluter pays principle and the proximity principle. As well as the principles just listed, reference must be made also to environmental policy integration (EPI) referred to in Chapter One, and subsidiarity, referred to in Chapter Two. Towards to end of the chapter attention turns to the way in which the foregoing principles have influenced the shape, content and evolution of'best available techniques not entailing excessive cost' (BATNEEC), 'best available techniques' (BAT) and 'best practical environmental option' (BPEO) as the drivers of several important regulatory regimes.
