Europeanisation and Environmental Policy Change

Environmental policy is one of the most regulated and one of the most Europeanised policy areas. This article analyses the concept of Europeanisation, discusses its mechanisms, the mediating factors that lead to change and its possible outcomes. It explores the relationship of specific mechanisms and mediating factors to policy convergence, inertia and divergence. The particularities of environmental policy are presented and a distinction between substantive and procedural policies is made. It is argued that a tendency to convergence of national environmental policies that goes beyond the borders of the EU and further than the “hard” mechanisms of Europeanisation can be observed.