The uneven distribution of “say and pay” in European environmental policy-making

The centralization of environmental competencies at the national level

As in Germany, the central state and the CCAA share responsibility for environmental policy-making. Sharing competencies, however, does not result in joint decision-making. Rather, the central state sets legislación básica (framework legislation) in order to provide a “lowest common denominator” of environmental standards throughout the country. The CCAA have the responsibility of implementing framework legislation. They may also enact additional norms, which complete or reinforce the regulations of national framework legislation, e.g. by setting stricter standards (Art. 149.23; 148.9 CE). The problem is that the CCAA do not always equally invoke their competence to develop central-state legislation. Some CCAA enact additional regulations, which go beyond the central-state legislation, while others simply apply the national laws. This tends to result in an uneven implementation at the regional level, which is reinforced by the lack of intergovernmental cooperation. Unlike Germany, where the Länder participate in central-state decision-making, intergovernmental coordination and cooperation used to be weak to non-existing in Spain. Consequently, the CCAA had no co-decision powers to lose as a result of Europeanization. Rather, centralization proceeded through the central state “capturing” legal and administrative competencies of the CCAA in the implementation of European environmental policies. The Spanish government managed to intervene in the transposition of virtually all European environmental policies by drawing on its exclusive competence to set and develop framework legislation.