ABSTRACT
International environmental policy is a field in which the role of the EU has evolved progressively over a period of a little over 30 years. When international environment policy first emerged in the 1970s, the EC’s role was insignificant, and the member states showed limited coherence in negotiations. During the 1980s, there was more of a common EU position in the negotiations on the Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depleting Substances. But since the 1990s, the EU has assumed a more important – indeed a leadership – role in international environmental diplomacy. The EU has developed this role despite the absence of any reference to the environment in the Treaty of Rome. The European Community was granted express powers to negotiate on international environment topics only in the Single European Act (SEA) in 1986 and more specifically in the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht). The EU has competence for domestic environmental policy, but it has been shared between the member states and the EU when it comes to conducting international environmental negotiations. The adoption of the TFEU has led to differing interpretations in terms of external competence, with the Commission arguing that it effectively extends competence to the EU.
