Running out of Steam or Cutting Red Tape? Weakening EU Environmental Policy in the Context of Austerity

Within the European Union, environmental policy is now formally embedded across tiers of government, and scholars have argued that the EU has played a key role advancing the environmental agenda. However, the global financial crisis led many politicians to espouse austerity policies and argue that reducing regulations on business was necessary in order to stimulate economic growth. More recently, Western democracies have also witnessed a resurgence of populism, which has often been dismissive of scientific evidence – including arguments that environmental safeguards are necessary to preserve life systems and protect human health. The environment and climate agenda appear particularly vulnerable to the new ‘post-truth’ paradigm. This paper will present the findings of a comprehensive analysis of EU environmental legislation and show how the EU has been less active in this sector since 2008. The analysis relies on a new methodological approach that considers both the 'density' and 'intensity' of policy: the amount of legislation agreed on the one hand, and the ambitiousness of those initiatives on the other. Although some recent ‘signature’ pieces of EU legislation appear to have consolidated its reputation as an environmental leader, in other areas the ‘green tide’ has either stagnated or retreated.