Expertise e comitati tecnici nelle decisioni pubbliche. Il caso della regolazione europea delle emissioni inquinanti e delle particelle in sospensione (PM10)

The paper puts forward a detailed reconstruction of the complex decision-making at EU level concerning the regulation of the polluting emissions in the urban areas (Directive CE 30/1999). The case study provides insights over the EU policy-making with regard to the environmental policy arena. Firstly, it is argued that since the end of the 1980s the environmental policy arena has gradually achieved its specificity and autonomy within the EU policies. An «inner circle» of the European environmental policy is identified, that is made of the Commission, the DG ENV, the AEA, the European Parliament and its Environmental committee, and finally of some external agencies. Secondly, the technical complexity of the decision and the collection and management of quantitative data that support it have enhanced the role of a number of agencies linked to some of the governments of the Member States and of some technical working groups (particularly the working group set on the PM10). Thirdly, the decision-making process clearly reveals the WHO’s propositional and implicitly political role in formulating the problem and advancing some suggestions towards its solution. Fourthly, the «inner circle» of the European environmental policies is relatively impermeable to external influences and there is only a limited bargaining or negotiating activity between the opposing parties. The «inner circle» acts on the basis of shared values and its positions are legitimized by information delivered by external and autonomous agencies, therefore excluding antagonistic positions and confining the decision-making within it.