A thesis submitted to the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy of Central European University in part fulfilment of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy “We Don’t Eat Fish...” Science, Policy and EU Governance: The Implementation of Arsenic Limits for Drinking Water in a Hungarian Case Study Julia LEVENTON June, 2011 CEU eTD Collection Budapest CEU eTD Collection Notes on copyright and the ownership of intellectual property rights: (1) Copyright in text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European University Library. Details may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the Author. (2) The ownership of any intellectual property rights which may be described in this thesis is vested in the Central European University, subject to any prior agreement to the contrary, and may not be made available for use by third parties without the written permission of the University, which will prescribe the terms and conditions of any such agreement. (3) For bibliographic and reference purposes this thesis should be referred to as: Leventon, J. 2011. “We Don’t Eat Fish...” Science, Policy and EU Governance: The Implementation of Arsenic Limits for Drinking Water in a Hungarian Case Study, Doctoral thesis, Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Central European University, Budapest. Further information on the conditions under which disclosures and exploitation may take place is available from the Head of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Central European University. CEU eTD Collection i Author’s declaration No portion of the work referred to in this thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. Furthermore, this thesis contains no materials previously written and/or published by another person, except where appropriate acknowledgment is made in the form of bibliographical reference, etc. Julia Leventon CEU eTD Collection ii THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY ABSTRACT OF THESIS submitted by: Julia LEVENTON for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and entitled: “We Don’t Eat Fish...” Science, Policy and EU Governance: The Implementation of Arsenic Limits for Drinking Water in a Hungarian Case Study. Month and Year of submission: June, 2011. This thesis examines the causes of Hungarian non-implementation of EU legislation for controlling arsenic in drinking water. Natural concentrations of arsenic are found in groundwater and soil systems throughout the world. Where these groundwater resources are used as a source of drinking water, people are exposed to arsenic, presenting a threat to human health. Chronic exposure to arsenic has been linked to skin, bladder and lung cancers, and a variety of other diseases including ischemic heart disease and diabetes. In order to prevent these health impacts, numerous legislative agencies set limits for concentrations of arsenic in drinking water. The EU sets a limit of 10 ppb (ȝg/l). This limit is adopted by all member states that must then juggle social, scientific, economic and political considerations to ensure it is met. Hungary heavily relies on drinking water sourced from high-arsenic groundwater. However, despite adopting the EU limits, much of the water delivered exceeds 10 ppb. This puts approximately one quarter of the population at risk from arsenic-related health problems. This thesis seeks to explain this governance failure. The methods employed in this research take a multi-disciplinary, holistic approach to examining the institutions of governance in Hungary. A case study of Békés County in South Eastern Hungary is examined. A policy review is conducted, covering every level of policy to characterise the institutional structures of drinking water management, and to highlight points of administrative and scientific failure in the multi-level governance system. Discourse data is collected from every policy actor. This is used to explore the policy related beliefs of the actor, according to analytical frameworks taken from the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF). These are explored to examine points of clash between policy actors and the institutional structure in terms of beliefs about the content and approach of policies and the assignment of roles. These points of mismatch are used to explain how implementation deficits occur, how they interact, and therefore what the underlying causes of governance failure are. The results show that governance failures are created when policy actors do not adjust their beliefs to match those incorporated into the policies and institutional structures of the EU. Resistance to institutional adoption results from the persistence of actor beliefs incorporated under previous governance institutions, and because of the lack of information or resources CEU eTD Collection available to facilitate belief change. In particular, a lack of scientific justification behind the 10 ppb limit prevents the availability of such information. These findings expand upon current understandings of structure-agency interactions of institutions in EU governance systems, and the role this plays in policy implementation. Recommendations are made for further research to improve current understandings of governance failures in the EU. Recommendations are also iii made for the improvement of policy implementation, including the rectification of scientific errors incorporated into policy, and the way in which policy rationale is communicated to policy actors. Keywords: Environmental governance, Arsenic, Groundwater, Implementation, Hungary, Europeanisation, Institutions, Advocacy Coalition Framework CEU eTD Collection iv Acknowledgements Funding I acknowledge funding from the European Commission (AquaTRAIN MRTN-CT-2006-035420). I am also grateful for a six-month write-up grant provided by the Central European University. People I am thankful that my PhD experience has been vastly enriched by a large number of people, across multiple countries who interact with many areas of my life. All of them have offered opportunities and supported me in ways they probably didn’t even realise. I am not sure that an acknowledgments page does them all justice, but I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you: Thesis Committee: To Prof. Alexios Antypas (CEU, supervisor), Prof. Ruben Mnatsakanian (CEU, committee member) and Dr. Petr Jehliþka (The Open University, UK, opponent). It is special to me that I can count amongst my acknowledgments Dr. Lindsay Stringer (Leeds University, external supervisor) who has supported me since my undergraduate degree. Participants: To the numerous study participants, without whom this thesis would not have been possible. Thank you for your time, encouragement and enthusiasm. I hope I have the opportunity to return the many favours one day. AquaTRAIN Colleagues: To the lead scientists, I thank you for your guidance and opportunities, with special mention to Prof. Dave Polya (network coordinator) and Dr. Stephan Hug. To the researchers, I thank you for the discussion, support and especially friendship, with special mention to the soon-to-be Dr.s Aimee Hegan, Claudia Cascio, Chris Parsons. In Hungary: To my Hungarian supporters, helpers and friends Orsi Korsos, Edina Muray, Zsuzsanna Fehér, Zsófia Szi-Ferenc, thank you for the help, advice and support. To my PhD colleagues and staff (and friends) in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, thank your for the help and discussion, especially Krisztina Szabados, Irina Herczeg and Prof. Alan Watt. In Italy: To staff (and friends) in the Soils Action, particularly Luca Montanarella, Gergely Tóth, Frank Verheijen, Vit Penizek and Simon Jeffery. In Greece: To staff (and friends) in the HERS Lab, particularly Nikos Nikolaidis, Leeda Demetropoulou (and family), Daniel Moraetis and Fotini Stamati. In the Czech Republic: To the Mildorf family, Vaclav, Milada, David, Tereza and Vojta. Thank you for accepting and supporting (and feeding) me. Those Without Borders: To my friends, Aida Geragusian, Paul Rockliffe, Melissa Davis, CEU eTD Collection Andrew Lister, Brigit Chesworth and Matt Bond, thank you for coming on the journey with me. Finally to my family, Jill, Charlie and Martin Leventon, Clare Baker and Tomáš Mildorf, all of the above thanks apply to you and yet somehow don’t quite feel big enough. v Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. THE ARSENIC PROBLEM ............................................................................................................. 1 1.2. THE IMPORTANCE OF EU POLICY................................................................................................ 7 1.3. THE THESIS: RESEARCH AIMS AND CONTEXT ........................................................................... 12 2. POLICY IMPLEMENTATION AND POLICY FAILURES IN THE EU................................. 19 2.1. IMPLEMENTATION RESEARCH: DEFINITIONS AND FRAMEWORKS .............................................. 19 2.2. APPLICATION TO ARSENIC MANAGEMENT ...............................................................................