An Assessment of Compliance Strategies in the Environmental Policy Area

This article assesses methods and tools deployed by the Commission to ensure compliance in the environmental sector. This assessment is made using Tallberg’s theoretical interpretation of enforcement and management strategies within the EU. The author analyses the statistical data provided in the Commission’s annual reports on monitoring the application of EU law, as well as environmental infringement judgments delivered between 2007 and 2013. This examination of the environmental policy area and sources for non-compliance validates the complementary deployment of both strategies as they offer a variety of preventive and coercive measures. However, the analysis demonstrates that the Commission uses the management approach more effectively to ensure compliance in the environmental policy area. Although the Commission is making progress under the enforcement approach in the field of the environment, its potential has not been fully realised without a more rigorous application of Article 258 and the imposition of sanctions under Article 260.