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Wed 11 April
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    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 12 April
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    14.00 - 16.00
    16.00 - 18.30

Fri 13 April
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    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Sat 14 April
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Wednesday 11 April 2012 11.00 - 13.00
R-2 POL17 The Europeanisation of the Environment: Actors, Institutions and Ideas
Maths Building: 203
Networks: Health and Environment , Politics, Citizenship, and Nations Chair: Ann-Christina Knudsen
Organizers: - Discussant: Ann-Christina Knudsen
Stéphane Frioux : Towards a Europeanisation of Air Pollution Management ? Late 1950s-1970s
During what the French called a posteriori the ”Trente Glorieuses” (Thirty Glorious Years), the economic boom of the Reconstruction coincided with a period of increasing air pollution, from industry but also from domestic heating and from car exhaust pipes...The problem touched many countries and many cities and was put into ... (Show more)
During what the French called a posteriori the ”Trente Glorieuses” (Thirty Glorious Years), the economic boom of the Reconstruction coincided with a period of increasing air pollution, from industry but also from domestic heating and from car exhaust pipes...The problem touched many countries and many cities and was put into the media headlines through a dramatic accident in the 1952 London smog. Governments started to consider legislative answers, which supposed to ground political decision on scientific expertise and norms.
The paper will examine how the air pollution issue was faced by public authorities and also by people involved in science (climatology, public health, toxicology...) and in industry and engineering. It will address the question of the formation – and of the activity – of informal and official transnational networks which worked on the aspect of health hazards related to air pollution and on the measures to reduce it.
Three main sources will be used : firstly, the documents linked to the activity of transnational experts committees, such as EUROTOX, which expressed the wish, in a symposium held in Royaumont, France (1960), towards the creation of a large international cooperation in the field of air pollution control and prevention ; the 1964 Conference on Air Pollution organised by the Council of Europe, will also be studied, in order to compare the French and the German impulse in the agenda setting and in the elaboration of general recommendations.
Secondly, “Pollution atmosphérique”, the journal edited from 1959 by the APPA, French Association for the Prevention of Air Pollution, will provide a national viewpoint on experiences that were at work abroad, especially in the U.K and in Germany.
Thirdly, the paper will use archival sources, both from local records and from the French national archives, to study the reception of experts' recommendations, particularly from the O.E.C.D and from the E.E.C.
In choosing these sources and various scales of analysis, I hope to light up what was at stake in the origins of the Europeanisation of Air Pollution, which is still a work in progress and to propose keys of interpretation of the shift from a public health perspective to a more environmental approach that took place between the 1950s and the 1970s. (Show less)

Jan-Henrik Meyer : What is Europeanisation? Conceptual Clarifications and Empirical Examples from the History of the Emergent Environmental Policy of the European Communities in the 1970s
The goal of this paper is to turn the elusive notion of Europeanisation into a conceptual framework for the analysis of phenomena in the emergent environmental policy and environmentalism of the post-war period that are of European scope, drawing on the writings by political scientists, but also on the broader ... (Show more)
The goal of this paper is to turn the elusive notion of Europeanisation into a conceptual framework for the analysis of phenomena in the emergent environmental policy and environmentalism of the post-war period that are of European scope, drawing on the writings by political scientists, but also on the broader interdisciplinary literature on transnationalisation and regionalisation. Even if subsequently the concept will be applied to the case of the emerging environmental policy of the European Communities (EC) in the 1970s, I argue that Europeanisation is not limited to the supranational European institutions of the European Union (EU).
Five aspects of Europeanisation can be distinguished: First, Europeanisation may be understood as a process of the establishment of European institutions – including not only the EC or EU, but also including other international organisations of European scope such as the Council of Europe, and their involvement in policy-making and norms-setting beyond the nation state. Secondly, along the lines of the most widely used definition in political science, Europeanisation may also designate the impact of these European institutions on the nation state, on regulation by national administrations, and more broadly on the policies affecting the citizens. Apart from such a top-down model, we can, thirdly, also conceive of societal Europeanisation, namely the transnational cooperation of societal actors – for purposes of intervening in European institutions, or intervening in national policies profitting from transnational assistance. Fourthly, as a result of such cooperation, Europeanisation can also imply the increased transnational transfer of ideas in Europe, as well as the growing use of "European practice" as an argument in political debates. Fifthly, we can assess to what extent Europeanisation is a process that leads to shared ideas – e.g. about the environment. This notion of convergence is clearly implicit in the concept of Europeanisation (as a directional process), and requires critical evaluation in the face of the historical development.
The analytical model devised in this paper will inform the analysis of the other contributions of this panel, and lay the basis for drawing some generalising conclusions. (Show less)

Sandra Tauer : Debates on Nuclear Energy along the Upper Rhine: An Example of the Europeanisation of Environmental Policy?
The anti-nuclear movement in Germany is dating back to the early 1970s, when large demonstrations prevented the construction of a nuclear plant at Wyhl. Protests at Wyhl inspired nuclear opposition throughout Europe. However, did the debates on nuclear energy lead to a growth of a European continental identity or European ... (Show more)
The anti-nuclear movement in Germany is dating back to the early 1970s, when large demonstrations prevented the construction of a nuclear plant at Wyhl. Protests at Wyhl inspired nuclear opposition throughout Europe. However, did the debates on nuclear energy lead to a growth of a European continental identity or European environmental policy?
As the state government of Baden-Wuerttemberg officially announced plans of constructing a nuclear power plant at the Upper Rhine in 1973, it became clear that the construction of the nuclear power plants took place without bilateral coordination. The construction of the Fessenheim Nuclear Power Plant had began already in 1970.
An insufficient communication and mutual mistrust of the governments contrasted with a lively, international cooperation of the protest movement. At that time the local population became more and more fearful of the industrialisation of the Upper Rhine. A factory, which would use considerable amounts of lead planned on the French Rhine side in Marckolsheim aroused already considerable opposition. German Anti-nuclear protesters were mistrusting the French regulation on environmental protection even more than the German regulation.
On the French side, we can see a deep-rooted mistrust against the German government: Above all the French authorities were concerned about the German governments’ assertiveness. Would they really be capable of protecting the building site at Wyhl properly? The industrial ministry blamed the big protest movement in Germany, the local press, and in addition the local authorities for this situation.
Attempts to review the location of the nuclear power plants along the French-German border failed as well. Both governments would not accept a possible sovereignty loss. Minimal cooperation however started in the field of handling the consequences, which aroused from the construction of nuclear power. In 1977 Federal Minister of the Interior Werner Maihofer and his French homologue Michel Poniatowski made an agreement about mutual help in case of disasters or serious accidents and about the cooperation of the police authorities in the border area.
All in all, the environmentalists with the backing of local identity were able to overcome the border and shaped a european spirit, while for the German and French government the Rhine remained a border of interests. (Show less)



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