The Strengths and Limits of New Forms of EU Governance: The Cases of Mainstreaming and Impact Assessment in EU Public Health and Sustainable Development Policy

Abstract

Since the mid‐1990s, the EU has been experimenting with a variety of new forms of EU governance, including mainstreaming and impact assessment. Though originating in gender policy at the EU level, mainstreaming and impact assessments strategies subsequently spread to other social policies and more recently public health and sustainable development policy. However, the spread of these strategies has not been uncontested or unproblematic, generating problems of bureaucratic overload and costs and competition between policy areas. Using primary and secondary sources and recent interviews with European non‐governmental organisations and Commission elites, this article will examine and compare recent developments in the mainstreaming of EU health and sustainable development policy and compare the histories of and debates surrounding these developments. Through this comparison this article will expose new insights into current developments in both policy fields and contribute to the debate on mainstreaming and impact assessment strategies as new forms of EU governance.