The book chapter "The evolution of EU environmental governance" by Ecologic Senior Fellow Dr. Ingmar von Homeyer was commissioned by the Academy of European Law/European University Institute, Florence, and provides an analytical overview of EU environmental policy from its beginnings in the early 1970s up to the present. The author argues that EU environmental governance today is best understood as an amalgam of four to five environmental governance regimes which have successively been layered on top of each other over the past 35 years.

The evolution of EU environmental governance began with the "environmental regime" which was later followed by the "Internal Market regime", the "Integration regime", the "Sustainable development regime", and the emerging "climate regime". The regimes can be distinguished analytically in terms of their overall political priorities, legal foundations, decision-making methods, types of justification, underlying political dynamics, environmental objectives, and instruments. Each of the regimes is still present in the system of EU environmental governance today.

The chapter will be published as part of the proceedings of the summer school of the Academy of European Law at the European University Institute, Florence. Entitled “Environmental Protection: European Law and Governance”, the book will be edited by Prof Joanne Scott (University College London) and published by the Oxford University Press.