More streamlined and targeted. A comparative analysis of the 7th and 8th Environment Action Programmes guiding European environmental policy

Lavinia C Pindaru; Andreea Nita; Iulian M Niculae; Steluta Manolache; Laurentiu Rozylowicz

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19212

More streamlined and targeted. A comparative analysis of the 7th and 8th Environment Action Programmes guiding European environmental policy

Heliyon. 2023 Aug 22;9(9):e19212. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19212. eCollection 2023 Sep.

Authors

Lavinia C Pindaru^{1

2}, Andreea Nita¹, Iulian M Niculae¹, Steluta Manolache¹, Laurentiu Rozylowicz¹

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Environmental Research, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania.
² Doctoral School in Geography Simion Mehedinti - Nature and Sustainable Development, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania.

Abstract

Environment Action Programmes (EAP's) are the most important documents defining the environmental policies within the European Union. Their implementation, over the previous 50 years, represented a significant advance in raising eco-friendly awareness and suggesting solutions for environmental problems in the European Union. In this paper, we used Institutional Grammar Tool and network analysis to identify the evolution of EU EAP's by investigating the most recent two programmes (7th Environment Action Programme and 8th Environment Action Programme), particularly in priority objectives, institutional statements, enforcement perspectives, and projected participation of stakeholders. We found that the EU's 8th Environment Action Programme (2021-2030) is further streamlined and target oriented as compared to 7th Environment Action Programme. Furthermore, institutional statements included in the 8th EAP will be implemented predominantly at the levels of European Union and European Commission. On the contrary, in the 7th EAP, the number of institutions, frameworks, and stakeholders is higher and often regional and local (e.g., European Union, Environment Action Programme, European Environment Agency, European Commission, European Parliament, Convention on Biological Diversity, regional authorities, local authorities). The close links of the 8th EAP targets with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the European Green Deal represent an important step towards a greater applicability of environmental policies in the European Union. Our study reveals that comparative analysis of legal documents using Institutional Grammar Tool and network analysis can assist policymakers in assessing the drafting of legal environmental documents and obtain indispensable information about the changes to improve environmental policies.

Keywords: 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; Environmental governance; European Green Deal; European Union policies; Institutional Grammar Tool; Network analysis.