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Using an analytical framework based on current implementation theory, this research examines the transposition of the EU Waste Framework Directive into UK law and local government development control procedures. The study which forms the basis of this paper was commissioned by the UK Government to evaluate the effectiveness of the construction Waste Management Plans introduced as a legal requirement in 2008. It was found that its implementation had largely failed and that these new laws had been ineffective. Subsequently, in March 2012 the UK Government announced its intention to withdraw these Regulations. In the context of current deregulatory pressures, but with the continuing need to minimise construction waste, this research concludes that more attention should be paid by central government to their current ‘top-down’ implementation procedures in order to better roll-out new environmental legislation in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a legal analysis of some of the key issues that arise in examining the system for allocating emissions allowances under the EU's emissions trading scheme directive (EU ETS). There is a strong series of arguments in support of the view that the free allocation of allowances under the various national allocation plans (NAPs) involves an element of State aid, which has neither been formally notified to, nor cleared by, the Commission under the EC Treaty. Even if it is found properly to have been notified, there are serious doubts as to whether the extent of aid granted satisfies the proportionality principle. As a result, the operation of the EU ETS may be subject to some legal uncertainty with regard to possible legal challenges to the current allocation of allowances. Going forward, proposals to amend the operation of the EU ETS must take into account similar State aid considerations (particularly proportionality) and the experience gained from the working of the EU ETS in phase I. The structural outline of a possible legislative package has been suggested, which could achieve the safeguarding of commercial and legal certainty under the current allocation regime, while at the same time providing a basis for amendment of the allocation mechanism under the EU ETS for phase II and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the impact of European Community accession on the environmental non-governmental organisations (NGO) and environmental advocacy groups in Central European countries. Efforts of environmental NGO in Central and Eastern Europe to promote environmental protection; Information on environmental laws and institutions created in Central Europe before and after 1989; Directives concerning the environment imposed by the European Union in order to be a member of the union.

This commentary discusses the European Union's Emissions Trading system. In their very instructive and useful overview of the European Union's Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), "Greenhouse Gas Trading in Europe: The New Grand Policy Experiment," Joseph A. Kruger and William A. Pizer note that implementation of the system has been an impressively rapid process. They indicate that a main factor for understanding the character and speed of this process is the constructive use of lessons from U.S. trading programs by EU decisionmakers. The EU's high-speed decision-making process in constructing the emissions trading system can basically be understood and explained by a combination and interaction of three perspectives. First, the EU system was more ripe and ready for emissions trading when the process started in 1998 than may be readily apparent. Second, the European Commission (the Commission), the formal EU agenda-setter, played an extraordinarily strong entrepreneurial role throughout the development of the system, which sped up the process. Third, there is the perspective of the lessons learned from the U.S. emissions trading experience, as emphasized by Kruger and Pizer.