The present contribution will examine whether global environmental law and policy can profit from the experience of the European Union (EU) in this field. In the first section, EU environmental policy and law will be presented. In section II, some aspects are discussed which show deficiencies or gaps in global environmental policy and law. Section III discusses the possibility of transferring some experience from the EU scene to the international level. The chapter ends with some concluding remarks.

The European Union's environmental policy and law

The European Union is a regional integration organisation, consisting at present of twenty-five nation states and more than 450 million people. It is established by the Treaty on European Union which enshrines several other Treaties. One of its objectives is the achievement of a balanced and sustainable development:

Since the beginning of the 1970s, the European Union has developed an environmental policy which has been, over the years, extended and fine-tuned, and presently covers practically all areas of environmental concern. Some 350 sets of provisions – in the EU terminology, Regulations or Directives – deal with environmental issues, in particular water and air pollution, waste management, nature conservation and biodiversity protection, products and noise, permits, ozone layer and climate change issues.