Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T22:05:32.140Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Italy and the EU's environment and consumer policies: coalition-building, problem framing and informal channels of influence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2016

Daniela Sicurelli
Daniela Sicurelli*
Affiliation:
Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerche sul Cambiamento Politico (CIRCAP), Università di Siena, via Mattioli 10, 53100 Siena. E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although it is considered among the ‘environmental laggard’ states of the Union, Italy proved able to perform a crucial role in the promotion of one of the basic principles of EU environmental and consumer policy, namely the precautionary principle. The Italian government was influential in promoting this principle in EU food safety policy, in particular in a 2000 Directive on genetically modified organisms. This picture is certainly not one-sided, as the weakness of the Italian government in influencing EU decision-makers in the case of the 2001 Cocoa Directive shows. The main factors that explain when Italy matters in the EU environmental and consumer policy process are the way interests are aggregated, the way the problem is framed and the types of channels exploited to affect the policy process.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 9 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Italy in the EU: pigmy or giant? The role of Italian actors in EU policy-making , November 2004 , pp. 203 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Sbragia, Alberta, ‘Environmental Policy: The ‘Push-Pull’ of Policy-making’, in Wallace, Helen and Wallace, William (eds), Policy-making in the European Union , Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996, pp. 235–55; Pridham, Geoffrey, ‘Environmental Policies and Problems of European Legislation in Southern Europe’, South European Society and Politics, 1, 1, 1996, pp. 47–73; Andersen, Mikael S. and Liefferink, Duncan, ‘Greening the EU, National Positions in the Run-up to the Amsterdam Treaty’, Environmental Politics, 7, 3, 1998, pp. 66–93.Google Scholar

2. Scharpf, Fritz W., Governare l'Europa: legittimità democratica ed efficacia delle politiche nell'Unione Europea, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1997.Google Scholar

3. Zolin, Bruna, ‘Armonizzazione legislativa e prodotti di qualità: il caso della sostituzione del burro di cacao nei prodotti di cioccolato’, Economia Agro-Alimentare , 7, 3, 2002, pp. 51–72.Google Scholar

4. Zolin, , ‘Armonizzazione legislativa e prodotti di qualità’.Google Scholar

5. A Ministry of Health circular of 15 March 1996 modified the interpretation of Article 6 of Law No 351/76, providing that cocoa and chocolate products containing vegetable fats other than cocoa butter, originating in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, could be marketed within the Italian territory only if their composition satisfied the rules of the state of origin and if their sales’ name corresponded to that laid out in Article 6 of Law No 351/76—that is to say, ‘chocolate substitute’.Google Scholar

6. Ansa Sportello Europa, 3 July 1998.Google Scholar

7. International Cocoa Organization, Annual Report 1998/1999, July 1998.Google Scholar

8. Ansa Sportello Europa, 25 May 2000.Google Scholar

9. Ansa Sportello Europa, 18 March 2000.Google Scholar

10. Ansa Sportello Europa, 28 October 1999.Google Scholar

11. Agence Europe, 18 June 1999.Google Scholar

12. Confartigianato, Comunicato stampa, 3 August 2003, http://www.confartigianato.it.Google Scholar

13. Confindustria, ‘Le sfide della nuova economia’, Relazione introduttiva di Giampaolo Galli, Direttore del Centro Studi Confindustria, 25 March 2000.Google Scholar

14. Ansa Sportello Europa, 25 April 1996.Google Scholar

15. Interview with representatives of Coldiretti and Confartigianato, 14–15 April 2003.Google Scholar

16. Interview with a representative of Coldiretti, 14 April 2003.Google Scholar

17. Legambiente, 2000a, ‘Marchio di qualità per il cioccolato: la proposta di Legambiente, Confartigianato e Cna’, Comunicato Stampa.Google Scholar

18. Legambiente, , 2000b, ‘Un altro prodotto tipico spazzato via. Legambiente lancia la lista della cioccolata-cioccolata’, Comunicato Stampa.Google Scholar

19. Ansa Sportello Europa, 15 March 2000.Google Scholar

20. Ansa Sportello Europa, 15 March 2000.Google Scholar

21. Sassatelli, Roberta and Scott, Alan, ‘Novel Food, New Markets and Trust Regimes: Responses to the Erosion of Consumers’ Confidence in Austria, Italy and the UK’, European Societies, 3, 2, 2001, pp. 213–44.Google Scholar

22. European Court of Justice, Commission v. Italy, C-14/00, 16 January 2003.Google Scholar

23. The Council Directive 73/241/EEC of 24 July 1973 on the approximation of the laws of the Member-states relating to cocoa and chocolate products intended for human consumption states that: ‘It is necessary to approximate the provisions relating to these products and to lay down definitions and common rules in respect of the composition, manufacturing specifications, packaging and labelling of these products in order to ensure their free movement.‘Directive 2000/36/EC of the EP and of the Council of 23 June 2000 relating to cocoa and chocolate products intended for human consumption states:’(5) The addition to chocolate products of vegetable fats other than cocoa butter, up to a maximum of 5%, is permitted in certain Member States.(6) The addition of certain vegetable fats other than cocoa butter to chocolate products, up to a maximum of 5%, should be permitted in all Member States; those vegetable fats should be cocoa butter equivalents and therefore be defined according to technical and scientific criteria.(7) In order to guarantee the single nature of the internal market, all chocolate products covered by this Directive must be able to move within the Community under the sales’ names set out in the provisions of Annex I to this Directive.’ Google Scholar

24. Interview with a representative of Greenpeace European Unit, 4 December 2002.Google Scholar

25. Sassatelli, and Scott, , ‘Novel Food, New Markets and Trust Regimes’.Google Scholar

26. Interview with a representative of Greenpeace Italia, 15 January 2003.Google Scholar

27. Bucchi, Massimiano and Neresini, Federico, Sociologia della salute , Carocci, Rome, 2001.Google Scholar

28. Veronesi, Umberto, ‘OGM, lettera aperta’, Galileo, 2001, http://www.galileo2001.it/materiali/documenti/ogm/veronesi.php.Google Scholar

29. Ansa Sportello Europa, 19 July 2000.Google Scholar

30. The banning of these products is made possible by the ‘safeguard clause’ of the EU law, according to which ‘Member States are obliged to take all appropriate measures to prohibit or restrict the placing on the market of products bearing the CE marking (indicating compliance with EU Directives) or to withdraw them from the market, if these products might compromise the safety and health of individuals or other public interests covered by the applicable directives, when the products are used for their intended purpose. Further, Member States must inform the Commission when they take such a measure. Where the Commission considers the national measure justified, it informs all Member States who must take appropriate action in view of their general obligation to enforce Community legislation’ (European Commission, no date).Google Scholar

31. Ansa Sportello Europa, 24 June 1999.Google Scholar

32. CNN Italia, ‘Ministri divisi, Amato blocca quattro mais transgenici’, 2000, http://www.cnn.italia.it.Google Scholar

33. ‘Biotecnologie, Verdi all'attacco di Veronesi’, Il Sole 24 Ore , 18 October 2000.Google Scholar

34. ‘Ministri divisi, Amato blocca quattro mais transgenici’, CNN Italia, 2000, http://www.cnn.italia.it.Google Scholar

35. Ansa Sportello Europa, 19 October 2000.Google Scholar

36. Interview with a representative of Coldiretti, 14 April 2003.Google Scholar

37. Interview with a representative of Coldiretti, 14 April 2003.Google Scholar

38. GENET, The European NGO Network on Genetic Engineering, 2000, http://www.genet-info.org.Google Scholar

39. Network of Concerned Farmers, ‘10 European regions declare “network of GMO free regions”’, 2003, http://www.non-gm-farmers.com.Google Scholar

40. Ansa Sportello Europa, 15 July 2000.Google Scholar

41. Interview to a representative of Confagricoltura, 15 April 2003.Google Scholar

42. Nazionale Alleanza, http://www.gioventuidentitaria.org, no date; interview with a representative of Coldiretti, 4 April 2003.Google Scholar

43. Greensite News, Mobiltebio non smobilita, no date, http://www.greensite.it/news/mobiltebio002.htm.Google Scholar

44. Interview with a representative of Coldiretti, 14 April 2003.Google Scholar

45. Interview with a representative of DG Environment, 10 February 2003.Google Scholar

46. Interview with a representative of Confagricoltura, 15 April 2003.Google Scholar

47. Interview with a representative of Federalimentare, 15 April 2003.Google Scholar

48. Ansa Sportello Europa, 15 February 2001.Google Scholar

49. European Court of Justice, Monsanto Agricoltura Italia SpA and others v. Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri and others, C-236/01, 9 March 2003.Google Scholar