Risk Regulation in the EU Internal Market

Abstract

This chapter examines the evolution of risk regulation in the European Union since the Single European Act, with particular emphasis on how the legal and institutional context of the internal market has shaped the EU approach to risk. It first traces the emergence of supranational risk regulation in the EU with the ‘1992 project’ before discussing treaty reforms in the 1990s which strengthened the function of risk regulation as a justification of EU internal market regulation. It then considers the legitimacy dilemma faced by the EU with regard to risk regulation, focusing on the debate over the scope of political discretion that the precautionary principle should provide. It also analyses the application of the principles of risk and cost-benefit analysis to control discretion through science and economics, respectively. Finally, it explores risk regulation challenges arising from the legal-institutional, socio-economic, and cultural diversity in the Member States.