Abstract

Environmental problems ignore political boundaries, which means that they can only be adequately addressed through cooperation between States. The several cooperation duties that emerge from international law in this field are implemented, in the majority of cases, through EU Law, which is the main focus of this article. A tentative taxonomy of mechanisms of transnational administrative cooperation in EU environmental law is provided.
The first is the establishment of a consultation stage of Member States and/or EU, in the framework of a national decision-making procedure. There are cases where the decision-making procedure not only involves a consultation stage, but also prior consent by another Member State or the Commission. Other mechanisms demand coordination of Member States action, namely in the management of shared resources. Composite decision-making procedures – i.e., procedures that have stages at both the national and the Union level, requiring the active participation of both levels – can also be seen as mechanisms of cooperation. Finally, duties of exchange of information and of notification are also presented as cooperation mechanisms.