Keith Clement

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL GAIN: STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT IN THE EU STRUCTURAL FUNDS

Within the context of EU regional policy, environmental issues are increasing in significance, most notably in the implementation of the Structural Funds, the aid package aimed at the EUs disadvantaged regions. The Framework Regulations for the Funds specify that environmental factors must be incorporated into regional development programmes, but there was little evidence of environmental integration during the first programming periods from 1989 to 1993. Environmental considerations were expected to be given a higher profile from 1994 onwards, but strategic assessment of the Single Programming Documents (SPDs) prepared for Objective 2 regions in several Member States reveals a very restricted role for the environment. SPDs are characterized by superficial information on the state of the environment, a limited perception of the scope of environmental impacts and opportunities for environmental gain, minimum indication of the involvement of environmental authorities either in strategy formulation or in future implementation and inadequate integration of environmental factors. Recommendations for future procedural improvements include the establishment of direct linkages between environmental targets, environmental criteria in project selection, environmental indicators in performance measurement, and environmental monitoring systems.

Multi‐disciplinary teams and environmental integration: European programmes

Regional development programmes in the European Union are increasingly being prepared by multi‐disciplinary teams whose official responsibilities now include environmental integration. Key determinants affecting team performance in this context include programme objectives, the status of environmental specialists in team composition, nterdisciplinary challenges and the diversity of objectives facing the team leader, and the need to maintain a proactive orientation towards environmental factors. Programmes currently operational reveal clear progress towards integration and environmental gain, particularly by teams in France, Wales and Scotland. Key issues emerging include that team leaders must accommodate and reconcile development and environment priorities, that national authorities are both supporting and providing environmental expertise as external and core team members, that team progress towards integration necessarily varies according to location, and that team performance will increasingly be judged on the basis of environmental factors.

European Integration and Foreign Investment: The Regional Implications

The regional effects of the Single European Market (SEM) have been the subject of increasing, though not necessarily conclusive, research. The problems of assessing the regional impact of integration were stated some years ago by Emerson (1988): “Difficult as it is to estimate the aggregate gains from market integration, this task is relatively manageable compared to that of forecasting its distribution by country or region … it is worth noting that neither economic theory nor relevant economic history can point to any clear-cut pattern of likely distributional advantage or disadvantage”.

Nuclear issues in FR Germany: the legal dimension

Abstract Opponents of nuclear power stations in FR Germany have for some time concentrated their efforts upon lawsuits in the administrative courts. Initially reluctant to consider such cases, the courts have in the last 15 years become very involved with the new legal problems raised by nuclear energy. As judgements are increasingly found in favour of the atomic industry, the future prospects for such lawsuits appear limited.