Protecting the Periphery

Environmental Policy in Peripheral Regions of the European Union

First published in 1994. ln Protecting the Periphery the editors present a series of papers revealing the impact of EU policies on environmental quality in regions at the edge of the European Union and in those lying just outside it. In many cases these regions contain habitats and landscapes of international importance; they have also often escaped some of the environmental damage caused by industrialization. But, as the papers' reveal, attempts by the EU to safeguard these environmental benefits are often contradicted by the EU’s own development policies, bringing air pollution from new roads, contamination from new industries, and leading to habitat destruction from modern agricultural practices and increases in tourism. As the Union pushes for the deepening of the integration process, including completing the internal market, the pressures on the periphery's environment are increasing. Furthermore, the efforts of the periphery to catch-up economically with the developed core can often heighten the tension between economic considerations on the one hand and the need for environmental protection on the other.

The studies in this book examine the ambivalent responses to EU environmental policy among policy-makers and environmentalists in the periphery. Both the willingness as well as the capacity of the periphery to protect its environmental heritage are explored. In particular, the administrative capacity, institutional arrangements, political culture as well as economic development needs are taken into account in an examination of the nature of the periphery’s response to and implementation of Union environmental policy. The book will appeal to policy-makers and academics in the countries of the European periphery and to analysts of European policy-making everywhere, especially those concerned with environmental policy and politics.