Johns Hopkins University Summer School: 'Anything is Possible'

Ecologic taught a Johns Hopkins Summer School on European Environmental Politics on 9-20 June 2008. Ecologic staff members and guest speakers conducted lessons on subjects, ranging from European Integration to European Water Policies. Johns Hopkins students also met with a variety of stakeholders in Berlin and Brussels to discuss European Environmental Policy.

To study German nature conservation policies, students visited the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Schorfheide.

The two-week syllabus covered the following topics from various perspectives:

• Introduction, covering the EU institutions, their competencies and the relationship between EU Member States and the EU in environmental policies; main advantages and disadvantages of EU action in environmental policies; examples of major success stories and failures of EU environmental policies; and sustainable development strategies (Nils Meyer Ohlendorf).
• EU Enlargement and EU Neighborhood Policy (ENP), covering the legal and political framework for enlarging the EU; the previous and current enlargement rounds; and implications of EU Enlargement and the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) on EU Environmental Policies (Nils Meyer Ohlendorf).
• EU and US relations on environmental issues, covering issues of controversy; themes for Cooperation; Environmental policy in the context of G8 and NATO; US Involvement in EU Policy-Making (R. Andreas Kraemer); the form and extent of EU involvement in US policy-making; and transatlantic economic integration and regulatory cooperation (David Vogel).
• EU Energy Policy, covering a "sustainable, efficient and diverse energy mix" as a priority objective under the future common EU energy policy; liberalisation of electricity markets as part of a wider attempt to forge an EU energy policy; and the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) and current discussion (Sönke Dibbern).
• EU Air Pollution, covering air quality in the Environment Action Programme; thematic strategies on air pollution; regulatory approaches; integrating air quality concerns into the affected sectors; and current developments, e.g. new Air Quality Directive, car emissions, Pollutant Release and Transfer register (PRTR) (Dr. Ralph Czarnecki).
• EU Waste Policies, covering basic principles of waste management (planning, reduction, recycling, recovery, disposal); reducing the impact of waste landfills and waste incineration via landfill and waste incineration legislation; and specific legislation for the different waste streams, e.g. packaging, electronic devices, end-of-life vehicles (Alexander Neubauer).
• EU climate and energy policy, covering EU and UN-climate change negotiations; the EU emission trading scheme; the January 2008 Commission proposal on climate change and energy policies (Dr. Camilla Bausch); views of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (Susanne Dröge, SWP); views of the DG Environment on the climate strategy, international negotiations and monitoring of the EU action strategy (Martin Weiss, DG Environment); views on and work procedures of the German Federal Ministry of the Environment (Christian Lindemann, Head Of Unit, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety); views from the World Wide Fund For Nature, WWF (Julitte de Grandpré, WWF); and views of the Federation of German Industries, BDI (Alexander Kessler, BDI).
• EU Water Policies, covering the European Water Framework Directive and its implementation 2000-2008; selection of cost-effective measures; public participation in river basin management planning; and heavily modified water bodies (Nicole Kranz).
• Biodiversity and international relations, covering international efforts to protect biodiversity (Matthias Buck, DG Environment: Climate Environmental Agreements and Trade).
• EU fishery policy: Views of the PEW Environment Group (Markus Knigge, Pew Environment Group, European Marine Programme).

Part of the summer school was a visit to the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Schorfheide and a guided tour through the European Parliament with Roric McCorristin, Office Director, Office of MEP Cem Özdemir and Axel Singhofen, Adviser for Health and Environment Policy, Faction The Greens/EFA, EP Environment Committee.

The Summer school was coordinated by Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf for Ecologic and Eileen McGurty for Johns Hopkins University.