Why there is no 'southern problem'. On environmental leaders and laggards in the European Union

Abstract

Non-compliance with EU (environmental) law is often considered to be a 'southern problem'. Because of specific features of their political systems, the four southern European member states are believed to lack the capacity for effectively implementing EU policies. In contrast, I argue in this article that, first, there is significant variation in compliance with EU environmental laws across the European member states which cannot be accommodated by a simple north-south divide. Second, the comparative study of the implementation of five different EU environmental policies in Spain and Germany shows that compliance may vary across different policies within one country. The article puts forward a model which allows us to explain variation across both member states and policies. It is argued that non-compliance is most likely if an EU policy causes a significant 'policy misfit' and if there is no mobilization of domestic actors pressurizing public authorities to bear the costs of implementing the 'misfitting' policy.