Environmental Policies and Problems of European Legislation in Southern Europe

The southern European member states of the European Union have acquired a reputation for being ‘laggards’ in the implementation of environmental legislation. This is to some extent justified, but it is also exaggerated. Such a view, which poses a North/South dichotomy, ignores general problems of implementation in the EU and takes little notice of differences among the southern European states. The causes of implementation problems, both genetic and systemic (or procedural), are examined in Spain, Italy and Greece. Not only are there important differences among them but key changes have occurred in the first half of the 1990s.