EU Environmental Policy In The Perspective Of Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism successfully replaced Keynesianism as the mainstream political thought in Europe in the 1970 s.Subsequently,neoliberalism swelled along the way,profoundly affecting many political fields in Europe.From the perspective of neoliberalism,this article reviews the development of the EU’s environmental policies since its inception,and explores the impact and characteristics of neoliberalism on EU environmental policies.Compared with the traditional model of command-control,the characteristics of neoliberalism’s impact on environmental policy mainly include neoliberalist environmental justice,market mechanism as the basis of governance,information transparency principle and miniltilateralism.In different periods,the impact of neoliberalism on EU environmental policy is also different,and the impact of different dimensions is also slightly focused.The development of the EU’s environmental policy has experienced a period of formation,development,adjustment,and direction exploration.In the early 1970 s,neo-liberalism gradually emerged,promoting the formation of the European Community ’s common environmental policy.Under the influence of neoliberalism,the EU regarded environmental issues as a barrier to trade,began to focus on cost-benefit analysis,and emphasized the shared responsibility for environmental responsibility among member countries.From the 1980 s to the late1990 s,neoliberal economic policies achieved good results in Europe and the United States,and the legitimacy of neoliberalism increased.Neoliberalism has become a natural solution for the EU to solve the problem of sustainable development.Neoliberalism regards environmental destruction as a distortion within the market,and environmental problems can only be solved after internalizing environmental costs.The view of internalizing environmental costs has become a powerful defense for the emphasis on cost-benefit analysis in European environmental policies.Under the influence of neoliberalism,the EU promoted the green transformation of agriculture and industry.From the late 1990 s to the middle and late 21 st century,European countries faced many challenges,the priority of the environmental agenda began to decline,and the EU ’s radical environmental policies affected by neoliberalism began to adjust.Neoliberalism provides more flexibility for EU environmental policy to adjust.The European Union began to emphasize the simplification of supervision procedures and the shared responsibility for environmental responsibility,while giving member countries more room to increase the flexibility of environmental policies,thereby preventing the European Union’s environmental governance process from going backwards.After the economic crisis of 2008,the EU faced many difficulties both internally and externally.The European Debt Crisis,Syrian Refugee Tide,Brexit,etc.,continue to impact the EU,and the EU is in an unprecedented predicament.However,the ambitions of the EU’s environmental policies have not diminished.The EU actively explores new directions for environmental policies,gradually establishes a multi-level,multi-agent environmental governance system,and seeks to shift environmental responsibilities downward.Looking ahead,the impact of neoliberalism on EU environmental policy will continue.This continuation is due not only to the institutionalization of the political penetration of neoliberalism in Europe,but also to the continuity of neoliberalism itself,its resilience as dominance,and its resilience as survival.Not only that,neo-liberal environmental policy tools have more advantages than traditional command-control models,not only low cost and high efficiency,but also greater flexibility.However,the neoliberal environmental policy still has its own shortcomings.It also needs to continuously improve the implementation of market tools and information transparency principles,while promoting the innovation of environmental policy tools.