De-Europeanising or disengaging? EU environmental policy and Brexit

Charlotte Burns, Viviane Gravey, Andrew Jordan, Anthony Zito

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Abstract

The European Union (EU) has had a profound effect upon its members’ environmental policy. Even in the United Kingdom (UK), the EU’s most recalcitrant member state (historically labeled the ‘Dirty man of Europe’), environmental policy has been Europeanised. As the UK moves to the EU’s exit door it is timely to assess the utility of Europeanisation for understanding policy dynamics in the UK. Drawing upon interviews and extensive engagement with stakeholders, this article analyses the potential impact of Brexit upon environmental policy and politics. The analytical toolkit offered by deEuropeanisation is developed to identify the factors that drive and inhibit deEuropeanisation processes, thereby providing insights that may be applicable in other settings. Disengagement and policy stagnation are presented as more likely environmental outcomes of Brexit, with capacity emerging as a central explanatory variable.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)271-292
Number of pages11
JournalEnvironmental Politics
Volume28
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Jan 2019

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