In the Eye of the Storm? The European Parliament, the Environment and the EU’s Crises

The European Parliament (EP) has a long-established reputation as an ‘environmental champion’. Its Environment Committee has a history of successfully exploiting its existing powers to the full and using those powers as a vehicle to push for wider policy competence and further legislative clout for the Parliament as a whole. Yet this ‘established’ policy field is one that has potentially been profoundly and negatively affected by the conglomerate of crises that has beset the European Union since the late 2000s. Emerging empirical work points to the drop off in new environmental policy proposals coming from the Commission, and there has arguably been a shift away from the pursuit of rigorous environmental policy based upon ambitious goals. Moreover, we have a seen a swing to the right within the chamber in the 2009 and 2014 elections. This paper seeks to determine if there has been a discernible shift in the EP’s treatment of legislation since the late 2000s by using a mix of quantitative and qualitative data. First, it reviews and codes all environmental policy adopted in this period. In line with the wider expectations of the literature it finds limited evidence of the Parliament weakening legislation, but in a clear departure from previous studies, finds that the reasons for such weakening have changed. Detailed analysis of three case studies reveals that the economic crisis is used as a discursive justification for weakening policy. This case study of an ‘established’ area where the EP has traditionally been quite powerful illustrates the extent to which wider exogenous factors must be considered when analysing the exercise of institutional power.