Circumventing adaptation pressure? Implementing EU environmental policy in Spain

Article abstract:

Drawing on a topdown definition of Europeanisation, the article examines the implementation of EU environmental policies in Spain, focusing on specific case studies of the Habitats (92/43/EEC) and Urban Waste Water (91/271/EEC) directives. The paper explores the avenues through which EU environmental policies have impacted on either the institutional arrangements or national features of the policy process, and how their impact has influenced the effectiveness of implementation responses. The empirical evidence indicates that domestic actors have used EU resources without altering domestic institutional arrangements, by accommodating policy requirements in an incremental and instrumental way and producing effective implementation responses only when EU financial resources were available.