The role of the Eli Presidency in the environmental field: Does it make a difference which member state runs the Presidency?

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Abstract
This article argues that the EU Presidency plays a more important role than is generally assumed. It is not so much that the incumbent Presidency may try to ‘push through’ legislation close to the national interests but that it has an important role in fostering the Europeanization of national environmental policy‐making. Holding the Presidency creates strong pressures to achieve agreement and fosters a subtle but important learning process about the European and national dimensions of policy problems. This is one of the main reasons why national objectives and ‘styles’ tend more often to give way to ‘European thinking’ about environmental policy when the Presidency is held. National differences in running the Presidency become more apparent during informal Councils which do not make decisions directly resulting in legislation. It will be shown that there appears to be little difference overall in the way the British and German governments run their respective Presidencies despite considerable differences in their national ‘styles’ of environmental policy‐making.

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