COMPLIANCE WITH EU ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Abstract

The European Union (EU) is built on a set of common rules and policies agreed upon by its member states. Nevertheless, noncompliance with EU law is a recurring problem, which threatens the rule of law, decision-making process and ultimately the survival of the Union. Previous research has revealed that public opinion on policy-specific issues influence compliance with EU law because member states make a strategic decision on whether or not to comply based on its own self-interest. However, the limited amount of research on this topic uses delayed transposition of directives to measure noncompliance. Therefore, this study examines the effect of public attitudes toward the environment on the number of reasoned opinions regarding environmental policy in all twenty-eight EU member states between 2010 and 2019. A reasoned opinion is an official demand to comply with EU law sent to the member state from the Commission. It is a more accurate measure of noncompliance as it includes all types of legal acts and violations with EU law. The results of the regression analysis reveal that public opinion on the environment has a negative effect on the number of reasoned opinions. However, when controlling for the years the variation explained becomes non-significant.