Innovative and responsive? A longitudinal analysis of the speed of EU environmental policy-making, 1967-97

In institutional terms, the European Union (EU) is considerably 'thicker' than it was thirty years ago, with many new layers of decision-making procedure and myriad new actors, including almost twice as many member states. Conventional wisdom suggests that policy systems, in which policy development depends upon securing agreement among a concurrent majority of actors, are generally slow and collectively sub-optimal. However, a longitudinal analysis of the time taken to adopt environmental proposals in the period 1967-97 reveals that the policy process has become slightly faster not slower. This is despite an enormous growth in the scope and ambitiousness of the environmental acquis and a significant increase in the number of actors involved. The obvious conclusion is that actors have become steadily more effective at achieving consensus. These empirical findings are analysed against a number of predictions derived from macro- and middle-range theories of the EU.