Environmental policy in Greece: Evolution, structures and process

Abstract

Greece has been criticised for having ‘no environmental policy’. This is not true, and has not been for over a decade. Clearly, EU membership since 1981 is a major reason for this change. But Greek environmental policy is in many ways flawed, and it is still deeply affected by not only the inheritance of serious environmental degradation but also political, administrative, economic and cultural continuities. Greece is seen as a case of bureaucratic fragmentation in the environmental field. The approach taken is diachronic within‐country rather than making synchronic cross‐national comparisons with other European Countries. When the country's environmental problems and the reasons for their persistence, the nature of political structures, the policy‐making process and political responses are taken into account and when the impact of EU membership is assessed with respect to possible policy changes in the future, the dynamics of the environmental policy area can be seen to be complex, involving different constraints as well as stimuli from public and international pressures.