"The Europeanization of Dutch environmental policy: The advantages of being 'Mr. Average'?"

Liefferink, Duncan and Van der Zouwen, Marielle. (2003) "The Europeanization of Dutch environmental policy: The advantages of being 'Mr. Average'?". In: UNSPECIFIED, Nashville, TN. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The Netherlands has always perceived its EU membership as positive and has generally been in favor of deeper European integration. The EU has certainly had a clearly identifiable impact on the structure of Dutch environmental policy, most notably the mechanisms used to co-ordinate the Dutch input into EU environmental policy and those governing the transposition and implementation of EU policy in the Netherlands. The impact of the EU on both the content and style of Dutch environmental policy is less apparent. Though in some cases Dutch policy instruments have had to adapt to EU requirements, Brussels seldom affects other substantive aspects of the policy content, such as goals, concepts, and settings. This is mainly because many aspects of Dutch environmental policy successfully anticipate EU level developments. In fact, the Netherlands does not, like some other countries, sit simply back and wait for the EU to act on a given issue, but "uploads" general policy concepts and strategies to the EU level. The most notable difference between the Netherlands and the EU occurs in relation to their respective policy styles. Dutch consensualism and an emphasis on long-term planning appear to be very robust and to some extent in contrast with the EU style, which is more legalistic and ad hoc. As will be argued in this [paper], the difference in style has been the breeding ground for most of the conflicts between Dutch and European environmental policy over the last years.

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