The Principle of Subsidiarity and Its Impact on EU Environmental Law and Policy

Since environmental policy is not vested exclusively in the EU, the principle of subsidiarity applies. It comes much more to the fore in the environmental field than in other policies such as the internal market. Indeed, environment policy entails constant cooperation between all institutional players. What is more, there are a number of good reasons supporting the view that EU environmental measures easily pass the hurdles of subsidiarity, including the member states’ inability to solve environmental issues of a cross-border nature, such as ozone depletion and climate change. The horizontal dimension of the principle of subsidiarity must also be emphasized: as far as environmental issues are concerned, self-regulation and deregulation have been promoted thanks to the rhetoric of subsidiarity