Brief History of Environmental Issues
 Sustainability
British environmental policy and politics cannot be understood without placing them in their European context. The importance of the European context would not have seemed possible a decade earlier in 1974, when Britain joined what was called the Common Market [Lowe, Ward]. Over the brief period since then a profound change has occurred in the basis of UK environmental policy through Britain’s membership of the European Community. In the past British governments tended to take a reactive approach to EC environmental policy, reflecting British economic and industrial priorities in Europe and defending established domestic regulatory procedures [Lowe, Ward]. Britain’s previously fragmented and pragmatic approach to environmental problems has been challenged by the weight of European policies and the systematic legal frameworks. Much of the UK’s flexible administrative style of regulation has been codified and made subject to legally defined standards [Lowe, Ward]. European integration has led to higher standards of protection being adopted in the UK in all sub-sectors of environmental policy [Lowe, Ward]. The most profound consequence of European integration has been the restructuring of environmental administration in the UK [Lowe, Ward]. There have been both centralising and decentralising tendencies which together could strengthen a new regional level of environmental administration and government [Lowe, Ward]. The main British contributions to EC environmental policy have tended to be procedural rather than substantive, such as waste management plans, environmental auditing and integrated pollution control [Lowe, Ward]. In the 1980s Britain was dubbed the ‘Dirty Man of Europe’ [Lowe, Ward]. Recently, this reputation has been cast off, and Britain has assumed a leading role in shaping European environmental policy [Lowe, Ward]. Britain joined the European Community (EC) 25 years ago [Lowe, Ward]. EC EP began at about the same time. Even so, the environment has seldom been a core concern in Britain’s relations with the EC. This reflects the secondary status of environmental policy within the EC and the tendency of UK governments to treat the environment as a minor policy concern [Lowe, Ward]. 
Overview
Overall, Britain’s environmental relations with the EC have been shaped by three main factors: the predominant political outlook towards Europe; the type of issue under negotiation; the attitude and leadership of the responsible Minister [Lowe, Ward]. The main political view of the EC in Britain has been as a single market. The growing ramifications of integration beyond trade and tariff reforms have tended to provoke resistance [Department for EFRA]. In the past, therefore, UK governments have tended not to regard EC environmental policy as a sector for proactive initiative, and the then Department of the Environment (DoE) and its Ministers have not seen the EC as an avenue for pursuing high environmental standards [Lowe, Ward]. Nevertheless, they have been obliged to acquiesce in the enlarged and progressive role for EC environmental policy making which other member states have pressed for as the counterpart to market liberalisation [Lowe, Ward]. Britain’s interest in the development of EC environmental policy has been in the consistency of standards within the single market and in accommodating its established domestic procedures to the development of EC rules [Lowe, Ward]. However, these two concerns can pull in different directions, with demands for more subsidiarity and flexibility in EC legislation on the one hand, yet on the other calls for more consistent implementation and compliance to promote a level playing field across the member states [Lowe, Ward]. These seemingly contradictory positions tend to be deployed in different contexts: with level playing field arguments used where the environmental issues concern British industrial competitiveness in international and European markets; and flexibility arguments when the issues concern domestic environmental management (for example, water quality or waste management, more the strict preserve of the DoE) [Department for EFRA, Environment Agency, Lowe, Ward]. European Directives have required that absolute legal standards be put in place for a range of environmental protection parameters [Lowe, Ward]. This has involved a shift from flexibility to formality in formulating and implementing the objectives of environmental policy [Lowe, Ward].  Two Acts which helped comprehensively to overhaul British practice - the 1974 CoP Act and the 1990 EP Act - provided the basis for an activist approach to EC policy development [Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Environment Agency, The Landfill Allowances, Executive Note to The AR, The Environmental Information].
Critical Assesment
During the 1980s, when British policy lost its momentum amidst public expenditure squeezes and political battles between central and local government, the EC agenda was determined largely by considerations from other member states with different concerns, to which the UK was forced to react [Jordan, O'Riordan, Lowe, Ward]. During the 1980s, as EC environmental law expanded and impinged ever more on British procedures, environmental groups were able to develop a role as watchdogs in the implementation of European legislation [Department for EFRA, The Landfill Allowances, Lowe, Ward]. Central government found it increasingly difficult to control the flow of environmental information and access to policy processes. With the policy agenda no longer contained within the confines of Whitehall, a number of existing policy communities - such as those on water quality and industrial pollution - were prised open [Executive Note to The AR, EM TO THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY, TO THE FISH LABELLING, TO THE THE HYDROCARBON OIL DUTIES, TO THE MOTOR VEHICLES, The Environmental Information, Lowe, Ward, UN EP]. The consequence has been a much more open, crowded and complex policy process [Jordan, O'Riordan].

This sustainability through legislation affects the UK economy by raising new barriers for manufacturers and for regulating market in a proper way. This will make the economy much more ecological and environmentally-oriented. The regulators will be for further interested in the development of the legislative basement while there will appear a lobby of the interests of manufacturers in reducing the level of UN and UK control over the environmental protection. The influence of Europe will widespread within the UK environmental sector and standards have been raised. The increasing control of the central government will be able to create the new type of the environmental policy while saving the interests of consumers will make the producers to manufacture their products on the basement of the environment-friendly technology. A common European framework, coupled with legal standards to be met over proscribed timetables, has greatly reduced the scope for administrative discretion in implementation and has helped create a more transparent system that is much more open to public and judicial scrutiny [Department for EFRA]. It has been necessary to make explicit the principles upon which environmental protection is based. Increasingly the justifications for policy have drawn on concepts developed in European spheres, such as the primacy of law in regulation, the notion of subsidiarity, the principle of precautionary action and the polluter pays principle [Department for EFRA, Lowe, Ward]. Those who will pollute, will pay more and more. With the policy agenda no longer contained within the confines of Whitehall, a number of existing policy communities - such as those on water quality and industrial pollution - were prised open.

REFERENCES
Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, <http://www.defra.gov.uk/>

Environment Agency, <http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/>

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 2004, No. 416 The Landfill Allowances [Online, PDF] Available at: www.opsi.gov.uk/sr/sr2004/nisr_20040416_en.pdf

Executive Note to The Automated Registration of Title to Land, 2006-10-11 [Online, PDF] Available at: www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/sen2006/ssien_20060491_en.pdf

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM TO THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY, 2004-12-10 [Online, PDF] Available at: www.opsi.gov.uk/si/em2004/uksiem_20043196_en.pdf

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM TO THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY, 2006-02-02 SINGLE [Online, PDF] Available at: www.opsi.gov.uk/si/em2006/uksiem_20060169_en.pdf

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM TO THE FISH LABELLING, 2006-03-09 (AMENDMENT) (ENGLAND) [Online, PDF] Available at: www.opsi.gov.uk/si/em2006/uksiem_20060506_en.pdf 

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM TO THE THE HYDROCARBON OIL DUTIES, 2006-01-06 [Online, PDF] Available at: www.opsi.gov.uk/si/em2005/uksiem_20053320_en.pdf

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM TO THE MOTOR VEHICLES (EC TYPE APPROVAL), [Online, PDF] 2005-09-12 Available at: www.opsi.gov.uk/si/em2005/uksiem_20052454_en.pdf

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION 2004, No. 520 The Environmental Information [Online, PDF] Available at: www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/ssi2004/ssi_20040520_en.pdf

Jordan, A., O'Riordan, T. The Precautionary Principle in UK Environmental Law and Policy , GEC-1994-11. Available at: http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/cserge/pub/wp/gec/gec_1994_11.htm

Lowe, P., Ward, St. The Europeanisation of British Environmental Policy and Politics.  ESRC GECP. Available at: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/gec/pubs/briefing/brief-20.htm

(Northern Ireland) Regulations, 2004 The Landfill Allowances Scheme [Online] Available at: www.opsi.gov.uk/sr/sr2004/20040416.htm

(Scotland) Regulations, 2004 The Environmental Information Available at: www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/ssi2004/20040520.htm

UN Environment Programme Protection Sites on the Web, <http://www.unep.org/civil_society/>