European Decision-making Process Research Articles

Transport Policy That Works: How to Decide?

The authors consider the policy making process in greater detail by examining several successful implementation processes' key driving forces during the last decade. These processes share a tailor-made management approach which combines a solid process approach with a thorough analysis to allow decisive policy changes. An objective and transparent instrument is provided through the thorough analysis to facilitate fact-based discussion. All stakeholders are involved in the process from its beginning in the process approach so that insight into differences in expectations and perspectives may be gained as well as to seek solutions to arguments that are sometimes subjective and to help build bridges. One of the approach's distinguishing features has turned out to be assisting all parties in addressing (sub)problems systematically after bringing all parties together organically, and this feature has laid the ground for many successfully introduced policy changes. Discussion can be quite considerably facilitated if all stakeholders understand how different perspectives may impact it, specifically. The article also discusses how European decision-making processes may benefit from the approach, although it is mainly discussed in regard to the Netherlands.

Cosmopolitanism

If Europe wants to overcome its current crisis, it urgently needs to develop a new political vision and a new concept for political integration. By focusing on the idea of a cosmopolitan Europe, this article outlines such a political vision for Europe. To this end, it first suggests reformulating the concept of cosmopolitanism in such a way that it is not tied to the ‘cosmos’ or the ‘globe’. With the aid of such a generalized concept of cosmopolitanism it then presents a novel, cosmopolitan approach to European integration that is no longer concerned with harmonizing rules and eliminating (national) differences, but with recognizing them. Finally, it outlines a new, post-national model of democracy for Europe that no longer disenfranchises citizens and instead gives them an active role in European decision-making processes.

The Quality of Democracy after Joining the European Union

Joining the European Union (EU) has changed the nature of democracy in the new member states. The EU's membership has complicated the structure of democratic decision making by making it more multilayered and multicentered. EU membership has enhanced the powers of nonmajoritarian institutions such as the European Commission, the European Court of Justice, and various regulatory agencies. National parliaments tend to be less powerful democratic players after a country joins the European Union—and even before, as the EU accession process has shown. EU membership has also broadened the democratic public space. As a consequence, democratic decision making within the European Union has to accommodate a more diversified set of interests and cultural orientations. Providing citizens with greater access to the European decision-making process seems to be most urgent in the new member states from Central and Eastern Europe, whose citizens feel particularly detached from this process. The article tries to suggest some ways of achieving this.

The Role of Transnational Committees in the European and Global Orders

Committees – i.e. transgovernmental and transnational bodies, composed of national officials, independent experts and/or interest representatives – are an important mechanism for accelerating negotiations in the European decision-making process. Substantial agreements are reached in specialized administrative colleges, which enjoy a heightened decision-making capacity. The European committees are thus essential tools for conflict prevention: they play a fundamental role in reconciling potentially conflicting national and supranational interests. Can the same be said of global committees? Are they similarly efficient in generating consensual decisions and reconciling the interests of the member States? The answer advanced in the paper is grounded on a comparison of structural and functional elements. The organizational models characteristic of the global committees largely correspond to those of the European system. Still, the relevant structural difference lies in their composition: while in the European Union the (transgovernmental) committees are all plenary, being composed of delegations of all Member States, in the universal organizations, by contrast, plenary committees are the exception. This organizational difference is reflected on the functional dimension: both European and global committees perform an essentially decisional activity, but global committees' efficiency (or productivity) and effectiveness (measurable in terms of member States' compliance) are relatively compromised by their (mainly) non-plenary composition. This is probably one of the reasons why effective problem-solving is greater in the European Union than in other international organizations.

The Participation and Representation of Women in the Debate on the Future of the European Union

While the process of the constitutional Convention in itself may represent a wide consultative and participatory exercise aimed at inclusion and dialogue, the involvement of women participants is relatively small and low-level. This raises the possibility of a democratic deficit in the process of EU constitutional reform. Yet, with the question of parity, quotas and gender mainstreaming high on the political agenda of a number of member states, it is rather surprising that the issue of women's participation (or lack of it) in the reform process was not more effectively highlighted in the Convention. Beyond the fact that women - like men - are entitled to be politically active and present in national and European decision-making processes, arguments may also be advanced to suggest the positive benefits of a proportional representation of women. Female representatives can bring to democratic decision-making procedures different life experiences from those of their male counterparts and may also display different attitudes towards the process itself in terms of discussion, conciliation and negotiation strategies.

Non-Compliance with EU Directives in the Member States: Opposition through the Backdoor?

To what extent are European rules complied with, and what are the reasons for non-compliance with EU law? According to an intergovernmentalist perspective, implementation problems should occur when member states failed to assert their interests in the European decision-making process. Focusing on 26 infringement procedures from the area of labour law, we show that such ‘opposition through the backdoor’ does occur occasionally. However, we demonstrate that opposition at the end of the EU policy process may also arise without prior opposition at the beginning. Additionally, our findings indicate that non-compliance is often unrelated to opposition, and due to administrative shortcomings, interpretation problems, and issue linkage. This study is based on unique in-depth data stemming from a ground-level analysis of the implementation of six EU Directives in all 15 member states.

Lobbying in de Europese Unie : Is er nog toekomst voor nationale belangengroepen ?

This article studies the lobbying strategies of national business associations against the background of increasing Europeanization. It addresses the question whether national associations have withered away during the process of European integration. On the basis of neo-functionalist integration theory and the multi-level governance (MLG) perspective, a number of hypotheses are generated about the fate of national associations in the European integration process. An extensive empirica[ study of the EU financial services sector analyzes these hypotheses. The data show that European financial integration has not caused the withering away of national business associations as predicted by neofunctionalist theory. The data not only confirm the MLG hypothesis that national associations develop direct lobbying strategies at different levels of the EU multi-level system in order to gain access to the European decision-making process. In addition, the results also confirm the hypothesis that national associations undertake indirect lobbying strategies (through membership in European associations) with the aim of gaining institutional access. Finally, the degree to which national associations gain access to the European institutions is explained in terms of a theory of supply and demand for access goods.

Maastricht and the Codecision Procedure: A Success Story

The Maastricht Treaty aimed partly to close the democratic deficit that exists in the European decision-making process. Accordingly, the role and the powers of the European Parliament were increased: a right of initiative was created, 1 committees of inquiry were reinforced, 2 the right of petition3 was recognised, an Ombudsman was created4 and a new legislative procedure, 5 which attempted to put the Parliament on an equal footing with the Council, was also included in the Treaty.

The Impact of the European Communities on National Policy‐Making

THE NOW FAIRLY EXTENSIVE LITERATURE ON THE EUROPEAN Communities, much of which sets out to analyse ‘the European decision-making process’, has tended to concentrate on how this process looks from the perspective of the Community itself and of its institutions. National governments and actors in the six political systems have been discussed primarily in so far as they are participants in the Community system. However, if we are to reach an understanding of the impact of the Communities on national processes, then some attention must be given to how the Communities are viewed from the national capitals, to the extent to which Community business impinges on the governmental systems in the member states and to the importance given to European matters among the competing issues which vie for prominence in national politics. Any analysis of the politics of European integration which looks from the Communities outwards makes the assumption that European issues are the only ones that count; but if those same issues are examined from a national perspective, we need to ask whether they represent simply one bundle of issues among many, or whether they have come to add a new dimension to the full range of governmental business and political debate. In other words, has the advent of the European Communities changed the political configuration of the six national systems, and, if so, marginally or fundamentally?