That there are six authors (and over 500 pages) speaks to the complexity of the task attempted in this almost encyclopedic book. Environmental Governance in Europe is divided into four main sections. Part I examines the emergence of environmental policies, programs, and principles and the relationship between trade and the environment at the European level. This section takes a primarily international relations perspective. Part II shifts focus to the nation-state. It compares national policy principles and styles across six EU member states. Three of these, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, represent richer northern states. The other three represent the less-developed South: Italy, Greece, and Spain. This section examines both instances of convergence and divergence in their environmental programs. Part III examines three policy issues (water quality, air pollution control, and packaging waste) across the six countries. Finally, Part IV provides frameworks for how to think about environmental governance in the multilevel European system. Although one can still recognize differences in the styles and approaches of authors that presumably were writing different sections of the book, it holds together remarkably well.

The authors explore such questions as why EU environmental institutions look the way they do, how environmental policies have changed, and the extent to which the EU as an institution can pull the heterogeneous states of the Union in a common environmental direction. It also considers how the North-South dimension that is present within the EU influences the direction of policy learning.

Because of its length and the somewhat dry style, the book is not likely to be read from front to back cover by all but the most hardcore EU environmental experts. Because it does try to cover so much ground, seldom does the analysis go really deep. For a book of this length, for example, remarkably few names of important individuals appear. Those looking for a detailed historical account of the development of EU environmental programs will need to consider other materials. That is not the purpose here. Instead, what is provided is a systematic, general overview of environmental programs, institutions, and norms both at the level of the EU and across numerous countries, issues, and time. The real richness of the book is in its systematic design and effort to understand why EU environmental policy functions in the way it does.

Theoretically, this book contributes to a growing interest in political science in finding ways to integrate international relations and comparative politics approaches to policy analysis. The very nature of the EU as a supranational body composed of independent nation-states and of the 30-odd years of EU integration in the environmental field makes this an excellent case for such theory building.

The authors begin by challenging the adequacy of either neofunctionalist or neorealist theories alone to explain the development of European environmental policy. Instead, they suggest that understanding the broad contours of environmental policy change in Europe requires elements of both theoretical frameworks. Neofunctionalist analyses are helpful in large part because Europe followed Jean Monnet's incremental, pragmatic approach to integration, while neorealist analyses have explanatory power to the extent that the EU's history has been shaped by intergovernmental bargaining among nations. At the same time, the authors argue that these theories are better at explaining the “super-systemic” level of European politics where major changes have occurred in the structure of institutions, than the systemic or subsystemic levels where decisions about courses of action are made. For this they suggest that neoinstitutionalist approaches may be more useful. In many ways, what the authors are arguing is that because the EU is both an arena for bargaining among heterogeneous nation-states and a mechanism for promoting cross-societal learning and policy convergence, a combination of neofunctionalist and neorealist approaches with neoinstitutionalist analyses is needed.

In the concluding chapter, they argue that EU environmental policy has not followed some grand vision or design, but if one had been attempted, it might not look so different from what had formed out of what they dub the Monnet method of integration— integration that is piecemeal and pragmatic. Where change could be envisioned is in strengthening the power of EU institutions relative to the nation-state in issues regarding environmental taxation and in enhancing transparency and accountability.

It could be argued that this book is trying to do too much, that it is trying to cover too much ground and raises too many questions. Yet, it is precisely because it is attempting to understand the complexity of the EU through all of these relationships that it is so worthwhile. Most scholars of European Union affairs, as well as many interested in the relation between international and national politics, especially in the environmental field, will want to add this book to their shelves.