ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE CONTESTED NOTION OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

This article considers the history of sustainable development in the EU together with some of the difficulties in formulating a coherent conception of sustainable development. This is supplemented by a theoretical discussion of the nature of concepts and their definition. Following an examination of sustainable development conceived as ecological modernisation and as a story-line capable of sustaining a politically successful discourse coalition, it concludes by asking whether the concept of sustainable development should be abandoned or, at least, radically reconceived. (English)