Scientific literature in the 1990s identified a small number of Member States (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands) as ‘pioneers’ in European Union (EU) environmental policy making. By being ahead of other Member States, by giving the example and by actively pushing the policy process in Brussels, they acted as important forces behind the development of EU environmental policy. This picture can no longer be recognised as easily as fifteen years ago. While other Member States have shown increasing willingness to act as ‘forerunners’ or ‘pushers’ (e.g. the UK in issues such as access to information or emissions trading), the former ‘pioneers’ seem to have become more hesitant and more selective in this regard. A first question is to what extent this view is correct. And secondly: what may be the reasons for such a shift? Apart from the consequences of EU enlargement for the strategies and relative influence of individual Member States, factors are likely to include various – and partly interrelated – domestic developments within the former ‘pioneers’ such as increasing Euro-skepticism, severe problems with the implementation of EU environmental directives, decreasing priority given to environmental issues, and a shift to more right-wing governments. This paper focuses on two Member States in which conditions for a ‘pioneer’ role appear to have changed considerably since the mid-1990s, i.e. the Netherlands and Denmark. Most conspicuously, national politics in both countries made a notable ‘turn to the right’ in recent years. The recent performance of both countries in EU environmental policy making is reviewed and an attempt is made to relate these observations to changing (particularly domestic) conditions on the one hand, and the possibility of a certain amount of ‘pioneer path dependence’ on the other. Comparing the two cases, current theoretical assumptions on ‘pioneer’ roles are critically reviewed.
