Eliantonio, Mariolina --- "Enforcing EU environmental policy effectively: international influences, current barriers and possible solutions" [2016] ELECD 683; in Drake, Sara; Smith, Melanie (eds), "New Directions in the Effective Enforcement of EU Law and Policy" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 175

Book Title: New Directions in the Effective Enforcement of EU Law and Policy

Editor(s): Drake, Sara; Smith, Melanie

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781784718688

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Enforcing EU environmental policy effectively: international influences, current barriers and possible solutions

Author(s): Eliantonio, Mariolina

Number of pages: 27

Abstract/Description:

The volume of EU environmental legislation and the serious consequences for humans and nature alike in case of non-compliance has made the issue of the enforcement of EU environmental law a top priority for the EU. The EU commitment to better and more effective enforcement of environmental legislation is all the more urgent because the EU is obliged by virtue of international law under the Aarhus Convention to ensure that the public has effective means to enforce EU environmental law through ensuring ‘wide access to justice’. This chapter will first identify the shortcomings of the system of centralized enforcement of environmental law. It will then analyse the gaps to effective decentralized enforcement before the national courts. The chapter will then consider some ‘new’ modes of governance in the enforcement of environmental law, namely the use of ‘soft law’ and networks, and evaluate their role towards creating a more effective enforcement regime for EU environmental law. This chapter will show that networks and guidance documents represent a promising addition to the more traditional instruments. However, further academic attention should be devoted to explore their actual effectiveness (and the conditions for their effectiveness) to promote a higher level of compliance with EU environmental law.