L’attuazione del principio di integrazione ambientale nel diritto dell’Unione europea

The implementation of the environmental integration principle in EU Law

Abstract

The principle of integration was introduced in the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997). Its revolutionary dimension consists in giving the environment a cross-cutting relevance, allowing it to influence all other policies. According to this principle ‘environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the definition and implementation of the Union’s policies and activities’.
To fully assess the different declinations of this principle and their impact on the achievement of sustainable development, it is necessary to examine the extent to which environmental requirements have a place in secondary legislation.
The purpose of this investigation is to verify the effective compliance of the principle of integration by the EU legislator as well as to define the possible consequences of its violation. Ex-post control and the role of the Court of Justice in verifying the respect of this principle will also be investigated. Finally, the effective considering of environmental requirements will also be examined in the context of the EU’s responses to states of crisis such as that generated by the pandemic and the more recent conflict in Ukraine.