Greening the Internal Market in a Difficult Economic Climate

2008 was a year of turmoil in the financial markets, rapid economic slowdown and the start of recession in several European economies, bank bailouts and growing calls for protectionism (see Quaglia et al., in this volume). We might expect the principal casualties of these developments to have been European market integration and liberalization measures, the rigorous application of EU Competition Policy rules and the adoption and application of environmental and other measures that impose costs upon European industry. EU fiscal policy rules have effectively been suspended and several bank bail-outs by national governments have verged on breaking EU competition policy rules. However, it is difficult to demonstrate that the internal market and environmental legislative and policy agenda of 2008 was altered significantly by reactions to the crisis. As bankruptcies and unemployment rise in 2009, no doubt the negative impact of the recession on market integration and liberalization will be further felt. In 2008, one of the most significant policy developments concerning the internal market was the stalled liberalization of the energy sector. However, this was in no way linked to the economic slow-down: French and German governments have long dragged their heels on liberalization in these sectors and long opposed the unbundling of gas and electricity production and supply. More surprising was the success in adopting ambitious targets to cut EU carbon emissions over the next decade. Despite the inevitable watering JCMS 2009 Volume 47 Annual Review pp. 133–150