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There is growing interest in comparative studies of EU and US federalism and its implications for environmental policy. US and EU approaches to atmospheric pollution issues, such as acid rain and climate change have been the subject of various studies and have pointed to the different approaches of the US and the EU towards common air pollution problems. This paper will examine policy making styles towards air pollution problems in federalist systems. Of particular interest is how an expanding EU may influence the policy approaches of the EU towards air pollution problems and will consider whether an enlarged EU will lead to greater convergence between EU and US approaches to air pollution issues or will instead, reinforce the divergent approaches of these federal systems towards problems such as acid rain and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysts have mainly painted a gloomy picture of the consequences of enlargement for EU environmental policy. Enlargement is widely expected to protract decision-making and widen the implementation gap. In this paper, we first specify and the arguments and logic behind the gloomy expectations. Second, we confront these arguments with empirical evidence from three issue-areas: air pollution, GMOs and climate change. The main concusion is that the consequences of enlargement vary between issue-areas. Air pollution indicates status quo, climate change som unfortunate consequences whereas the new memebr-states have strengthened EU's restrictive policy on GMOs somewhat. The paper then goes on to discuss why there is a mismatch between expectations and empirical observations. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]