Agriculture and the EC Environmental Assessment Directive: Lessons for Community Policy‐Making

The 1985 EC Directive on Environmental Assessment introduces a common set of decision‐making procedures throughout the Community for authorizing specified classes of land‐use projects. During the development of the Directive, projects involving agricultural intensification received a high profile, but were marginalized in the final text, in no small part due to opposition by the United Kingdom. Even then, implementation of the Directive in the United Kingdom in respect of agriculture has proved peculiarly troublesome, not least because of presumptions firmly entrenched in the country's long‐established land‐use planning system. The history of the Directive and its effect in one country has wider implications for the future development of Community environmental policy, particularly in the light of current concerns to secure more effective policy integration in areas hitherto largely unaffected by such considerations.