Strategic Dimension of EU Environmental Policy

Environmental policy - that serves to protect and restore the environment - today comes in a number of different guises, from 'stand-alone' environmental measures to environmental provisions that are inserted into primarily economic or social policies. There is an almost continuous process of widening the agenda. Furthermore, the form, content and ultimate success of environmental policy is influenced by global questions such as trade and competitiveness, terrorism and security, energy supply and migration, as well as macro-economic policy issues such as jobs and economic growth.

These and other strategic issues provide the overarching context for environmental decision making and are seen to be increasingly significant to the environmental debate in Europe. On the one hand, it is now recognised that decisions in the realm of public finance or globalisation have critical environmental consequences. On the other hand, environmental issues such climate change and water shortages are themselves being recognised as strategic challenges with major geo-political implications.

IEEP has consistently contributed to analysis of the EU's more strategic agenda and its implications for environmental policy and environmental quality. At the EU level, a major focus is on key overarching strategies that have emerged and are, to some extent, dominating the policy debate: the Lisbon Strategy on growth and jobs, and the EU Sustainable Development Strategy. Behind these broad strategies lies a more detailed agenda focusing on EU financing, new approaches to governance, (including Better Regulation and pubic involvement in EU decision making), and EU enlargement and relations with neighbouring countries.

Addressing the global dimension to EU environment and sustainable development discussion is proving increasingly critical and will be an area receiving increased attention from IEEP in the coming years.

IEEP has a team working on a range of strategic EU issues. For more details of this work, and contact points, see the individual pages within this section: