TRANSFORMING REGULATORY SYSTEMS Multilevel Governance in a European Context

Ever since the publication of the report Our common future (World Commission on Environment and Development Commission Brundtland, 1987) and the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, sustainable development has become the central perspective in national and international environmental strategies. Important changes in production and consumption systems are required in order to meet the needs and aspirations of a growing world population while using environmental resources in a sustainable manner (IHDP 1999). Instead of ‘compliance to regulation’ the challenge is to develop policy strategies through which industrial systems can be transformed into sustainable ones. Next to developing innovative policy programs based on voluntary and collaborative approaches, systems of direct regulation have an important role to play, if strengthened. Doing so only in a national context has severe limitations. Environmental problems, their causes and possible solutions have strong international dimensions. Unilateral approaches are therefore quite meaningless and also come across the competitiveness of national industries. Obviously, transforming regulatory systems can therefore not be done by a single nation state in isolation. Collaboration at a higher level is a necessity. The European Union is one of the important arenas for this.