Environmental policy and the single market

The aim of this study was to improve the understanding of the relationship and interaction between European environmental policies and the single market. To this end, the project identified and analysed environmental policy areas where a lack of standards of environmental policies may lead to market distortions. Based on the analysis, the project leaders developed options to overcome these distortions as well as provided a broad empirical overview on the implementation of EU environmental policies in each Member State.

The overview explored scope and origin of competition distortions and analysed when and where greater standardisation can bring benefits from both an environmental and single market perspective. The study also collected and reviewed the available literature on different strands of research that were relevant for the topic of the interaction between the environment and single market. The implications for environmental policies were discussed in detail. Moreover, the mechanisms and driving forces of competition distortions were analysed in detail. Finally, the findings were presented and discussed with experts in order to highlight opportunities that can mutually reinforce environmental and single market policies.