The Eus Green Dynamism

Download or read book The EU's Green Dynamism written by Henning Deters and published by ECPR Press. This book was released on 2018-10-16 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The high voting threshold in the Council together with conflicting national preferences should frustrate effective European problem-solving. This famous prediction of the "joint-decision trap" (JDT) is at odds with Europe's dynamic environmental policy. Yet there is scarce research on the limited impact of the JDT in this realm. We know little, therefore, about the conditions of effective environmental policy-change in the EU. By comparing cases of stability and change, including CO2-limits for passenger cars and the phase-out of incandescent lamps, The EU's Green Dynamism examines the ways in and out of the JDT in environmental policy. It shows how both the highly politicized summit level and the bureaucratic "comitology" facilitate change by acting as informal bypasses to the Council. This book contributes to a better understanding of the JDT. It speaks to the recent debate about Europe's "new intergovernmentalism" and the reliance on "informal politics," especially in the wake of the Euro crisis.