The Implementation Gap in the European Union

Deciding on the success or failure of policy is often taken place at the implementation stage, thus, studying this stage is important. This study contributes to the public policy implementation literature by analysing the public policy implementation gap through a case study on implementing environmental policy in the European Union (EU). Through analysis of relevant secondary data, this work evaluates theories of implementation such as top-down, bottom-up, and synthesis models. It realised that the framework of synthesis model, to a great extent, is appropriate for understanding EU policy implementation.