SPRU Electronic Working Paper No 72

Ecological modernisation and EU environmental policy integration

Julia Hertin and Frans Berkhout

Abstract

The need to integrate environmental concerns into all areas of policy has served as a rhetorical reference point for a long time. Only recently has the objective of environmental policy integration (EPI) been tackled through serious institutional and regulatory reforms. This paper argues that EPI can be understood as an element of a process of ecological modernisation of policy. It provides an analysis of specific institutional processes of integration in one policy domain - industry/enterprise - within the European Commission. The aim is to place in a wider context micro-processes of integration, and to assess how far these processes match up to four expected outcomes of environmental policy integration: agenda setting; capacity-building; policy communication; and policy learning. The aim is to provide a critique of ecological modernisation of policy in practice, and to show that formal processes of ecological modernisation are uneven and context-specific. The paper concludes by arguing that in practice ecological modernisation of policy will in some cases continue to face important barriers because it runs counter to prevailing ideas and interests. Policy integration strategies need to be understood as learning processes, with a focus on developing institutional capabilities and resources.

pdf no longer available - this paper has now been published as 'Analysing Institutional Strategies for Environmental Policy Integration' in Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 5 (1) 2003, 39-56.

spruweb@sussex.ac.uk
11 October 2001