The dominance of the Lisbon agreement as a barrier for an environmentally oriented transport policy in Europe; the gap between theory and implementation in policy integration

Abstract

There is an increasing demand for policy integration in a number of policy areas. This is also the case when it comes to the ambition to realize a sustainable transport system, where seemingly contrasting issues such as economic growth and the related negative effects, increasing emissions for example, have to be brought together. This article deals with the theory of policy integration and reviews selected policy documents at the European level, with the attempt to draw conclusions about the success and inadequacies of actual policies when it comes to policy integration. With two illustrations, one showing the efforts to introduce biofuels and another focusing on the introduction of new and more strict emission standards, the authors present the difficulties that exist. Based on interviews with policy-makers at the European Commission, the authors present empirical evidence of the barriers. This evidence is the basis for an analysis and better understanding of the factors that influence present EU-policymaking in the field of sustainable transport and leads to the conclusion that there is a danger that the Lisbon objective (i.e. “competitive Europe”) prevails on the Gothenburg objective (i.e. “sustainable Europe”) and that this has a negative effect on the implementation of a European sustainable transport policy.