ABSTRACT
The dynamics of environmental policy making in the EU have always been in flux. After the heyday of relatively rapid policy development in the 1980s and 1990s, recent history has undoubtedly witnessed a sharp reduction in the number of new policy proposals and more criticism of existing rules and procedures. Are these new policy dynamics symptomatic of the growing maturity of the sector or an indication of declining political ambition? This chapter examines whether EU environmental policy is currently expanding, declining or staying broadly the same. It introduces different methods for measuring the direction and ambitiousness of policy change and applies them to specific examples of policy change. Finally, it discusses how and why two recent crises – the first economic (austerity) and the other political (Brexit) – have pushed environmental policy into more uncertain times which have challenged established dynamics in the sector. It concludes that while EU environmental policy has proven highly resilient to dismantling in the past, continuing political support for strong action in the future is not a given.
