ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
caused by the implementation of federal environmental regulations, such
as the need to issue thousands of industrial permits as required by the Clean
WaterAct 1990.
EU environmental policy has also encountered a range of implementation
problems. Crucially, the responsibility for implementing EU environmental
regulation lies with the member states and there is no ‘European’ envi-
ronmental inspectorate with powers of enforcement. Not surprisingly, there
are sharp differences between member state governments in their approach
to the environment (Weale et al. 2000 ; Jordan and Liefferink2004b). One
oft-cited cleavage is that between the ‘pioneer’ ecologically modernising
countries of the North and the less developed ‘laggard’ Southern European
nations. For example, the Southern member states – Greece, Italy, Spain
and Portugal – have generally been slower at transposing EU environmen-
tal directives into national legislation and, more importantly, have been
rather lax about enforcing them (Weale et al. 2000 : 299–303). This record
partly reflects basic infrastructural problems, such as an administrative inca-
pacity to deal with the costly burden of EU directives (in all policy sectors).
Whereas Northern European states have generally managed to adapt existing
structures to respond to specific directives, in the absence of any tradition
of environmental control Southern European states have had to build new
institutions and structures. Some observers also refer, rather controversially,
toa‘Mediterranean syndrome’, meaning a civic culture that sanctions non-
co-operative and non-compliant behaviour and impedes the enforcement of
regulative policies (La Spina and Sciortino 1993 ). Whilst there is evidence of
agap between North and South on environmental policy, it is a rather crude
dichotomy, and several observers argue that the perception of a ‘Southern
problem’ in EU environmental policy is neither accurate nor helpful. Weale
et al. ( 2000 : 330) point out that Spain’s ‘more effective’ record is closer to
that of the UK, than to those of Italy and Greece, whilst B ̈orzel ( 2003 ), in a
comparison of Spanish and German environmental policy, reveals that on
some issues Germany has been the laggard. The North–South gap has also
been reduced by various EU distributive programmes, notably the Cohe-
sion Fund which directed around€18 billion to environmental projects in
Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland, and the structural funds for disadvan-
taged regions (Lenschow 2005 : 322). It is too early to tell whether the ten
new EU member states will, as some commentators predict, join the ranks
of ‘laggards’ (Vandeveer and Carmin 2004 : 325–6).◗ Implementation deficit and national regulatory styles
Most regulatory mechanisms face a fundamental administrative dilemma.
One advantage of regulation is that standards and rules should be applied
uniformly across an industry; in practice, there are strong pressures under-
mining this principle. Pollution control is a highly complex process with
an informational asymmetry favouring the polluter, which may oblige