Europeanization of Environmental Policies and their Limitations : Capacity Building

This book offers a window into the mechanisms that drive events when countries with poor track records in environmental protection and low administrative capacity, join an organisation with ambitious environmental regulatory regimes, which include some of the highest environmental protections standards in the world. This book examines the institutional building capacity in Romania after two decades of the development of the EU's environmental policy on elaboration, transposition, implementation, monitoring and institutional building. The book examines how Romania has fared as one of the least environmentally friendly EU member states, and poses the following questions. What are the limits of Europeanisation in the area of public policies? What is the reason why, despite the overwhelming public interest in environmental issues, and widespread agreement that urgent action to protect the environment and prevent catastrophic climate change are paramount, the pace of achieving thegoals is remains slow. Why do policies fail? This book brings together several case studies focusing on the evolution of environmental policies in Romania over the last twenty years, with a special focus on the post-accession period (2007 onwards). The book provides an analysis of policies, where progress is less than satisfactory, and examines why this is the case. Contents Abbreviations Chapter 1: The Long Shadow of the Past: Europeanization Meets Institutional Backwardness 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Literature Review References Chapter 2: Municipal Waste Management 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The History and Evolution of the EU acquis and Other Relevant International Conventions in the Field 2.3 The History of Developments in the Area of Interest 2.4 Lack of Resources? 2.5 The Original Sin 2.6 Lessons Learned? Not Really 2.7 What Europeanization in Municipal Waste Management Means? 2.8 Conclusions References Chapter 3: Synthetic Assessment of the Governance of Forests and Protected Areas, Related EU Policies, and Their Domestic Implementation 3.1 Introduction 3.2 The History and Evolution of the EU acquis and Relevant International Legislation 3.3 The History of Policy Developments on Forests and Protected Areas in Romania 3.4 Evolution of National Policies and Their Implementation 3.5 Effect of Previous Policies in Terms of Relevance, Effectiveness, and Efficiency 3.6 Main Explanatory Models Proposed in the Scientific Literature 3.7 The Leading Causes of the Observed Problems in the Forest Sector 3.8 The History of the Involvement of Civil Society in the Governance of Forests and Protected Areas 3.9 Conclusions References Chapter 4: Air Pollution and Environmental Policies, EU and Romania: Where We Stand, What the Data Reveals, What Should Be Done in the Future? 4.1 Introduction 4.2 What Pollution Is? 4.3 The History and Evolution of the EU acquis and Implementation Instruments 4.4 Developing Romania’s Capacity to Monitor Air Pollution 4.5 Analysis of the Evolution of Emitted Pollutant Levels 4.6 Analysis of the Evolution of Atmospheric Pollutant Levels 4.7 Evolution of Implementation of Air Quality Public Policies in Romania 4.8 The Infringements Against Romania in the Air Quality Field and to Whom Is Present Status Due? 4.9 Conclusions References Chapter 5: Europeanizing Environmental Public Policy Funding Through the Environmental Fund 5.1 Introduction 5.2 The Role of the Environmental Fund 5.3 Evolution of Receipts to the Environmental Fund (EF) 5.4 Inspection 5.5 Project Financing 5.6 Conclusions References Chapter 6: The Evolution of the First Matriculation Tax 6.1 Introduction 6.2 EU Taxation Policy on Cars 6.3 The Case Study of Romania 6.4 The Evolution of Romania’s Matriculation Tax Through Time: Success or Failure? 6.5 Conclusion References Chapter 7: Buying Green? How a Green Public Procurement-Dedicated Law Can Do More Harm than Good 7.1 Introduction 7.2 The History and Evolution of the GPP Provisions in the EU 7.3 The Evolution of GPP Policy in Romania 7.4 The Effects of GPP Policy Implementation in Romania 7.5 What Factors Explain GPP Policy Failure? 7.6 Main Findings in the Scientific Literature in the Field of GPP Policy 7.7 Conclusions References Chapter 8: Promoting Alternative Methods for Environmentally Friendly Agriculture in Romania 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Historical Evolution of the Alternative Methods for Environmentally Friendly Agriculture 8.3 Regulating the Alternative Methods for Environmentally Friendly Agriculture 8.4 Theoretical Discussion 8.5 Conclusions References Chapter 9: Romania’s Capacity to Plan and Implement a Sustainable Development Strategy 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Building a Domestic Strategic Approach for Sustainable Development 9.3 Romania in the EU, A Sustainable Approach? 9.4 What Are the Perspectives for a more Inclusive Romanian Society? 9.5 Conclusions References Chapter 10: Romania and Post-accession Compliance with EU Environmental Policy 10.1 Introduction 10.2 What Are the Factors that Shape Post-accession Compliance? Research on Post-accession Compliance 10.3 The Legacy of Conditionality and the Compliance with EU Legislation After 2007 10.4 General Evaluation on the Transposition of the Environmental Policy After 2007 10.5 Conclusion References Chapter 11: Formal and Output Europeanization 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Theoretical Implications References The book offers a window into the mechanisms that drive what happens when countries, with some of the poorest track records in environmental protection and low administrative capacity, join one of the most ambitious environmental regulatory regimes with some of the highest environmental protection standards in the world. The book examines the institutional building capacity in Romania after two decades of the development of the EU's environmental policy on elaboration, transposition, implementation, monitoring and institutional building. How has Romania fared as one of the least environmentally friendly EU member states? What are the limits of Europeanisation in the area of public policies? What is the reason why, despite the overwhelming public interest in environmental issues and widespread agreement that urgent action to protect the environment and prevent a catastrophic climate change are paramount, the pace of achieving the goals is still very slow. Why do policies fail? This book brings together several case studies focusing on the evolution of environmental policies in Romania over the last twenty years, with a special focus on the post-accession period (2007 onwards). The book analyses events over the last twelve years in policy areas where evolution can be described as less than satisfactory and try to understand why