The process of European integration is marked by a dynamic and often controversial balance between member state autonomy and supranational. decision making. Within the European Community (EC), enviromnental policy has in the past 25 years emerged as one of the major fields of activity. This study deals with the interrelations and shifts in enviromnental policy making between the national and the EC levels. More precisely, it is guided by the following basic questions:To what extent and in which way did the increasing involvement of the European Community in environmental policy making lead to increasing interrelation and interaction between environmental policy making at the EC level and the member state level? To what extent did such changes lead to a shift of policy making processes from the national to the EC level? Mich forces stimulated or hampered this development?The first part of the book (chapters 2-4) attempts to develop a theoretical framework for the study of environmental policy making in the EC. On the basis of a comparison of the major schools of thought in international relations theory it is concluded that the model of Complex Interdependence offers the best starting point for this purpose. In order to assess the dynamics of different kinds of international interdependence and cooperation, furthermore, a dissection of the concept of sovereignty into four dimensions is proposed. It turns out, however, that neither Complex Interdependence theory nor other theoretical models are sufficiently equipped for the analysis of 'day-to-day' enviromnental policy making in the Community and the shifting relations between domestic and EC political processes. This has to do among other things with the hybrid status of the Community, oscillating between a customary international organisation and a federation. As an analytical tool at the meso-level ( i.e. below the level of macro-theories of the state and of international relations) the notion of policy networks is proposed. The 'Europeanisation' of policy can ...