Positioning the Nordic Countries in European Union Environmental Policy

• DOI: 10.1177/1070496520933324
• Published date: 01 December 2020
• Author: Sanna C. Sääksjärvi
• Date: 01 December 2020
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Positioning the Nordic

Countries in European

Union Environmental

Policy

Sanna C. S€

a€

aksj€

arvi

1

Abstract

The influence of the Nordic countries on the European Union’s (EU’s) policy pro-

cesses has been researched from various angles, but there is a lack of research that

comprehensively examines all policy positions advanced by Nordic actors within a

given policy context. This article introduces a new design for studying policy posi-

tions and influence in the EU and examines the phenomenon from a multilevel

perspective using an original data set compiled in connection to three directives:

the Floods Directive on the assessment and management of flood risks, the

Environmental Liability Directive, and the Restriction of Hazardous Substances

Directive. The analysis reveals that the Nordic countries follow a certain pattern

of influencing EU policy that deviates from other states participating in the consul-

tations. Nordic governmental actors exert a strong technical but weak directional

influence in the chosen context but are, overall, more successful than Nordic

organizational actors at influencing the policy process.

Keywords

EU environmental policy, Nordic countries, policy positions, successful influence,

Nordic pattern of influence

1

Department of Political and Economic Studies, University of Helsinki

Corresponding Author:

Sanna C. S€

a€

aksj€

arvi, Department of Political and Economic Studies, University of Helsinki, Snellmansgatan

10-12, 00014 Helsingfors Universitet, Helsinki, Finland.

Email: sanna.saaksjarvi@helsinki.fi

Journal of Environment &

Development

2020, Vol. 29(4) 393–419

!The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/1070496520933324

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The European Union’s (EU) decision-making processes exist in a state of con-

tinuous f‌lux shaped by numerous actors, both political and nonpolitical.

Moreover, regarding environmental issues alone, over 300 legal acts have

been implemented at the EU level, with the number rising every year. A specif‌ic

feature of EU environmental policy is its Brusselization (Buonanno & Nugent,

2013): Almost all European environmental policy is either made in or in close

alliance with the EU (Benson & Jordan, 2013). Changes have occurred in multi-

level environmental governance in the past decade, with new forms of environ-

mental governance arising that are indifferent to formal hierarchies (Eckerberg

& Joas, 2004).According to the authors, such changes are due to a shift in

responsibilities from the public to the private sector and increased networking

between public and private actors, which is especially evident in the Nordic

countries and the Baltic area (Eckerberg & Joas, 2004).The Nordic countries

are traditionally pictured as unitary states with well-developed, comprehensive

welfare systems (Jacobsson et al., 2004) and cooperation arrangements that

distinguish them as strong nation states that powerfully emphasize the preser-

vation of national sovereignty (Olsen & Sverup, 1998, as cited in Jacobsson

et al., 2004). In many circumstances, the Nordic countries are seen as forming

a national bloc (Schewe, 2015), and they feature a governance model that also

differentiates them from other European countries: The Scandinavian adminis-

tration tradition (see, e.g., Greve et al., 2016) characterized by transparency,

decentralization, rule-based governance, and an administrative system that citi-

zens are easily able to access (Kuhlmann & Wollmann, 2014; Lægreid, 2017;

Widmalm et al., 2019). Moreover, the case of the Nordics is interesting from a

multilevel perspective because of the combination of their aforementioned pio-

neering of a new,more private-sector focused environmental governance, com-

bined with their reputation for defending national sovereignty. What, then, has

been the reaction of the Nordic states in this new era of multilevel environmental

governance within the EU? Have they forcefully defended their positions or

have they retreated, and are nonstate actors f‌illing a possible void? In this arti-

cle, I focus on the total number of cases where the consultation mechanism has

been used in environmental directives. The directives chosen for this study were

not of equal importance to the Nordic states in terms of governmental and

organizational participation but together the directives comprehensively ref‌lect

the various areas included in EU environmental legislation.

The inf‌luence of the Nordic EU countries on EU policy processes has been

analyzed from various angles, from small-state inf‌luence (see, e.g., Panke, 2010;

Thorhallsson & Wivel, 2006) to the inf‌luence of individual Nordic countries (see,

e.g., Pajala & Widgr

en, 2010). Nonetheless, research into actor inf‌luence on the

EU’s policy processes through commission consultations (Bunea, 2013, 2014;

Klu

¨ver, 2012, 2013) has not focused specif‌ically on the inf‌luence of the Nordic

countries or the strategies they use for affecting a particular policy context.

To compensate for the lack of such studies, this article offers an in-depth

394 Journal of Environment & Development 29(4)