The focus of this brief report is on EU environmental policy and environmentally relevant aspects of EU energy policy. A brief description of the initial situation in both policy areas is followed by examples of possible areas of application of differentiated integration. The first section discusses the potential benefits of differentiated integration in different areas of EU environmental policy, while the second section focuses more on implementation options. For the examples from the EU energy policy, advantages and implementation possibilities are discussed directly one after the other in one section for presentation reasons. The short report is available for download.

The final part of the study deals with the chances of achieving differentiated integration in the two policy areas from a more fundamentally oriented perspective and contains statements on possible effects on EU environmental policy and the integration process as a whole.

Despite many years of discussion and the possibility of enhanced cooperation between EU Member States under Article 11 EC, which is now almost ten years old, cases of differentiated integration in certain areas of EU policy are hardly or not at all to be found. This includes both environmental policy and energy policy. Based on concrete examples, the prospects for differentiated integration in both policy areas are discussed below. This shows that the potential benefits of recourse to differentiated integration in both policy areas have grown in recent years. The EU enlargement process and the increased orientation towards the principle of sustainable development and the associated political obstacles are largely responsible for this. In the field of energy policy in particular, factors such as the fulfilment of climate policy objectives, the current debate on the finite nature of non-renewable energy reserves and the dependence of oil and gas on imports play a similar role, as the associated debates highlight the need for sooner, more international solutions.