The principle of environmental integration in the European Union: the interlocking between integration and sustainable development

Abstract

The integration principle was initially conceived by the EU as the incorporation of environmental concerns into those policies with harmful effects on the environment, its main aim being the improvement of Community environmental policy. Later on, the same principle has been linked to the European Strategy of Sustainable Development (SD) which advocates the compatibility between economic growth, environmental conservation and social welfare. This connection has reflected itself in a «global version» (horizontal) of the principle, in the sense that the sustainability programme aspires now to influence the entire political process, from its early stage of agenda-setting to the final stage of policy assessment, in contrast with the «narrow version» (vertical) which simply revolved around the need to apply environmental criteria to the working of certain public agencies. The main problem of the global version is that it blurrs the crucial conflicts of interest that are brought about when SD is put into practice. This is so because the theoretical harmony between the three different pillars which compose SD is false. The low political feasibility of SD can be seen in the insufficient development of the horizontal dimension of the integration principle, as shown by the national strategies of SD which are underway in the OECD, and also in the fact that the vertical dimension of the principle is adhered to in a rather rethorical way.