Competition Law and Environmental Protection in Europe: Towards Sustainability?

Article 6 of the EC Treaty requires an integration of environmental protection requirements into the European Community's policies. As a result environmental concerns must also be integrated into Community competition law and policy. Taking Article 6 EC as a starting point, this book begins with the construction of a model of integration. This model requires that environmental concerns are awarded a role that will ultimately result in the internalisation of environmental concerns and therefore lead to a mutually reinforcing relation between competition and environmental protection. After an examination of Articles 81, 82, 86 and 87 of the EC Treaty, the useful effect doctrine (Article 10 in connection with 81 EC) and the Merger Regulation as well as the application of these competition rules in cases that involve environmental protection concerns, some conclusions are drawn with regard to the integration of environmental protection requirements and EC competition law. These conclusions are followed by a comparative legal research in which their validity is tested. On the basis of these findings it is concluded that the model of integration is being applied in parts of EC competition law. In those areas, competition policy towards environmental restrictions of competition actually increases the chances of a competition for the environment coming about. This, it is submitted, is an important step in the direction of achieving sustainable development. About the author: Hans Vedder (1974) graduated from the University of Groningen in 1997. From 1998 to 2001 he worked as a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Law of the University of Amsterdam. Since 2001 he is lecturer in European law at the University of Groningen. He has published several articles and chapters in books on various aspects of competition and environmental law.