I realise that I have been working on EU environmental policy for 25 years. I am looking forward to the next 25. One thing has been constant. Tracking what is being developed and planned has never been easy. There are some excellent commercial databases, I like EU Issue Tracker, that does the job for you.
You can track the current legislative agenda by looking at the European Parliament Environment Committee Work in Progress, Newsletter and cross referencing it with the Legislative Observatory. You can even watch the debates at your own pleasure.
The state of play in the Environment Council is less detailed – governments always seem shy or immune to transparency – but progress can be tracked.
What is Coming Out of the Pipeline
The challenge comes to track where new Commission proposals are in the pipeline. The Better Regulation agenda has made an important move forward here. Delegated legislation is now scrutinised more before adoption than before, with around 50% being put online for public consultation before adoption.
In 2017 the Commission will post a forward planning tool online which will give people a greater opportunity to see what is being planned. It won’t stop initiatives being pushed in by political pressure. But, it should give a better idea of what the year ahead looks like.
MindMap snap shot
I have produced a mind map of the key links you can use for straight environmental policy (not chemicals, substance or climate issues), and what the policy and political pipeline for 2017 and ahead looks like.