European Union Policy Process Research Articles

Lobbying Across Policy Stages: Different Tales of Interest Group Success

AbstractThis article examines interest groups' lobbying success across the agenda‐setting and policy formulation stages of the European Union's policy process. On the basis of its exclusive right of initiative, the European Commission plays a pivotal role in both stages. I argue that interest groups relying mostly on pressure politics are more likely to achieve agenda‐setting success because the Commission primarily seeks to assess the level of political support when setting its policy priorities. Conversely, organisations focusing predominantly on expertise‐based lobbying are anticipated to be more likely to secure policy success as the Commission mainly requires expert knowledge when designing its policy proposals. An illustrative case study of the Commission's proposal on deforestation‐free products demonstrates the plausibility of the theoretical argument. Overall, this research shows that distinct policy stages provide interest groups with unique opportunities for attaining lobbying success.

Refined avoidable mortality for comparative health systems performance assessment: an impact study

Abstract Background Avoidable mortality is headline indicator of relative health system performance in European Union policy processes. However, the reliability of this indicator for cross-national comparisons of health system performance is limited by the lack of control for cross-country differences in population health status, and the challenges in selecting causes of death and age limits. This study examined the feasibility and impact of several refinements of avoidable mortality addressing these concerns. Methods Using a sample of 30 European countries, including EU Member States, United Kingdom, Norway, and Iceland, we examined the feasibility and impact of adjusting avoidable mortality for cross-country differences in disease prevalence and disease stage, using extended age thresholds, and calculating the avoidable burden of disease. We measured the impact of the feasible adjustments by calculating the average absolute change in country ranks compared to the 2014 country ranking based on the standard avoidable mortality. Results Given publicly available data, only the calculation of years of life lost due to avoidable causes of death and using different age thresholds to calculate avoidable mortality are currently feasible. The impact of the feasible adjustments varied between countries with no visible geographic pattern. Including deaths due to avoidable causes at all ages changed the country ranks by an average of 1.9 places in men and 2.8 in women. Using years of life lost due to avoidable causes of death changed the rank by an average of 8.1 places in men and 8.7 in women. Conclusions Country rankings are highly sensitive to the type of refinement. However, a full assessment of refinements was not possible due to missing data. To ease the implementation of morbidity-based refinements of avoidable mortality, we recommend that a shorter list of avoidable causes of death is developed. Key messages A continuous refinement of relative health system performance measures and improving the availability of internationally comparable health data are critical to effectively support policy making. Updating the age thresholds used to calculate avoidable mortality and using years of life lost due to avoidable causes of death are currently feasible and have a sizeable impact on country rankings.

Eighty-six EU policy options for reducing imported deforestation

Eighty-six EU policy options for reducing imported deforestation

Explaining European agenda-setting using the multiple streams framework: the case of European natural gas regulation

This article adapts the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) to the European Union (EU) agenda-setting process. Therefore, it defines functional equivalents of the framework’s elements in the EU and clarifies which changes in the problem stream and political stream open policy windows. The article probes the usefulness of proposed adaptations by examining the rise of issues contained in the three natural gas directives passed in 1998, 2003, and 2009 on the EU’s decision agenda. The findings support the MSF explanation of the first and third gas directives, but not all necessary conditions were met regarding the second gas directive process. Building on these insights, the article enriches MSF scholarship and charts a course for future research that overcomes limitations with adapting the framework to the EU policy process.

A global actor past its peak?

Examining a range of policy areas in which the European Union (EU) acts externally – notably trade, development, climate change and foreign and security policy – this article considers the notion that the years since the mid-2000s have witnessed a decline in EU actorness/effectiveness. In evaluating EU performance, the article employs the interrelated concepts of presence, denoting EU status and influence; opportunity, denoting the external context of EU action; and capability, referring to EU policy processes and instruments, with particular reference to the impact of the 2009 Lisbon Treaty. It is contended that achievement of the increased capability envisaged by the Lisbon Treaty, together with resolution of the Eurozone crisis, with its deleterious effect upon the Union’s presence, would not fully compensate for the loss of opportunity provided by the changing international structure.

Building better theoretical frameworks of the European Union's policy process

We aim to build better frameworks of the European Union's policy process by taking stock of promising theoretical lenses, assessing their strengths and limitations, and developing robust research agendas. Frameworks may constitute competing policy explanations depending on assumptions they make about institutional and issue complexity. Points of competition and complementarity are identified, leading to a research agenda that specifies which lenses to use and when.

Ambiguity, multiple streams, and EU policy

The multiple streams framework draws insight from interactions between agency and institutions to explore the impact of context, time and meaning on policy change and to assess the institutional and issue complexities permeating the European Union (EU) policy process. The authors specify the assumptions and structure of the framework and review studies that have adapted it to reflect more fully EU decision-making processes. The nature of policy entrepreneurship and policy windows are assessed to identify areas of improvement. Finally, the authors sketch out a research agenda that refines the logic of political manipulation which permeates the lens and the institutional complexity which frames the EU policy process.

Advocacy coalitions: influencing the policy process in the EU

The aim of this contribution is to critically evaluate one of the theoretical approaches used to study the European Union (EU) political system and interest groups activity: the advocacy coalition framework (ACF). ACF considers that the outcome of legislative procedures is influenced by the alignment and role played by advocacy coalitions. This contribution assesses the impact of ACF on our understanding of the influences on the EU policy processes, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the approach. The main argument is that the ACF, although very useful in studying the EU political system, shows shortcomings when applied to the study of EU interest groups' performance. The contribution ends with a consideration of future directions for theoretical and empirical ACF research, alone and as part of wider integrated theoretical approaches to understanding the dynamics of influence in the EU.

The Everyday Politics of the European Public Sphere: Moving Beyond EU Policy Perspectives

While in the academic debate the idea of a European public sphere is seen from both consensual and conflictual perspectives, in the field of European Union (EU) policymaking, it tends to assume the profile of a neutral and all-inclusive social space. By focusing on the street level, this article suggests that such a view is problematic because it fails to resonate with people's everyday experiences. The article contrasts EU policy on civil society engagement and immigration with examples of civil society reactions to immigration in two corners of Europe—on the Italian island of Lampedusa and in the city of Athens, Greece. In order for the concept of a European public sphere to garner meaning outside the EU policy process, it needs to be anchored in the everyday politics of social space in Europe. This means embracing an ‘ethnographic approach’ that is sensitive to difference, diversity, and conflict, and to the daily (micro)political struggles that are played out in the public sphere.

Analyzing the European Union policy process

Analyzing the European Union policy process

Gender (In)equalities in the Knowledge Society

The article seeks answers to the question why progress towards gender equality has not turned out to be an inevitable part of the transition towards the knowledge society in Europe, in spite of efforts to ensure such an outcome. In this analysis I demonstrate how the market processes involved in the transition to the knowledge society entail opposing tendencies regarding gender inequalities. The European Union (EU) has brought into play a certain degree of convergence pressure by integrating relevant objectives of the Lisbon Strategy into the European Employment Strategy (EES) in order to pressure member states to develop its model of the knowledge society, which involves economic, employment and social progress. The main concern here is to identify the extent to which the EES and, in particular, the gender mainstreaming strategy is a tool to challenge the market forces underlying gender inequalities. It is argued that the EU's policy processes take as a given, and indeed promote the predominance of market forces in the construction of the knowledge society. Hence, the EU does not have a clear vision of what perpetuates gender inequalities and therefore what needs to be done to change them.

From Incremental to Comprehensive: Towards Island-Friendly European Union Policymaking

The sustainability challenges faced by islands in the European Union (EU) are not well reflected in EU policy, where the approach to island issues has been incremental and fragmented. This paper identifies EU islands and their main sustainability issues, and argues for a stronger awareness of island issues in EU policy processes. It notes in particular the current restrictive definition of islands, which excludes island states, and the fact that the issues of peripherality and insularity do not fit into any of the categories provided in the EU’s impact assessment guidelines. Moreover, since European islands are found at various administrative scales, there is a lack of harmonized statistical data on fundamental factors necessary for monitoring their sustainable development.

Does European Union politics become mediatized? The case of the European Commission

The article argues that a systematic study of mediatization processes promises valuable insights into problems of European Union (EU) governance. It sets out the mediatization argument and explores to what extent the political system and its major components can be expected to adjust to the logics of the news media. The empirical focus is on the adjustments of the European Commission to six distinct logics of the news media: news values, agenda-setting, news production, news language, investigative/accusatory journalism, and the reciprocal effects of professionalization. The paper finds preliminary evidence of mostly low to moderate mediatization across these six dimensions. Four main moderating factors account for this finding: political disincentives to strive for mass publicity, difficulties of communicating to fragmented audiences, limited scope for legislative initiatives, and the technocratic drawn-out nature of the EU policy process.

Networks in EU Multi-level Governance: Concepts and Contributions

AbstractWhile there is broad scholarly agreement that policy-making in the European Union (EU) involves a multitude of public and private actors at different levels of government, there is less agreement whether the EU should be conceptualized as a form of governancebynetworks or governanceinnetworks. This article first examines different concepts of networks. It then sets out multiple functions of networks within the EU policy process. Particular attention is paid to the extent to which networks may provide added value to European integration and improve the quality of governance by effectively solving common problems and helping to address the democratic deficit or whether, by acting as mechanisms of exclusion rather than inclusion, they actually contribute to the EU's legitimacy deficit. Since networks can enhance governance quality as well as undermine its democratic credentials, a balance sheet shows both positive and negative consequences.

Europeanization and the Sub-National Level: Changing Patterns of Governance in Northern Ireland

Like all sub-national units of the European Union (EU), Northern Ireland is subject to the ‘Europeanizing’ influences of the EU policy process. This influence became more profound and emphatic in the period after 1999 when powers were devolved to new sub-national political institutions. New institutional structures, evolving formal and informal linkages and changed policy mechanisms, have been subtly influenced by a process of Europeanization. The process, however, has been constrained by the resilience of the community political divide and the sensitivity that surrounds identity in Northern Ireland. The impact of the Europeanization process has not, therefore, diminished the distinctiveness of the Northern Ireland sub-national unit nor is it resulting in any significant degree of sub-national homogenization with the EU.

Introduction: Contested competences in the European Union

In this article, we set out an approach to European Union politics that seeks to explain its development using theories of institutional change. In contrast to dominant theories which assume that the Treaties, the governing texts of the European Union, faithfully ensure that the desires of member states are respected, we argue that these theories are incomplete contracts, rife with ambiguities. This means that during periods between Treaty negotiations, we may expect that collective actors in the European Union policy process – the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council – will each seek to bargain over these ambiguities so that their effective competences are maximised. Their ability to negotiate successfully will depend on their bargaining strength. These ‘conflicts over competences’ may lead to the creation of informal institutions. They may also in the longer term lead to formal institutional change, if they become folded into Treaty texts, or otherwise influence them, in subsequent rounds of negotiation.

Cross‐National Concepts in Supranational Governance: State–Society Relations and EU Policy Making

The emergence of multiple and shifting modes of governance both intranationally and supranationally has posed difficulties for analysts accustomed to refining or testing singular types of politics. When confronted with this changing complexity, a comprehensive framework can be a very useful diagnostic and organizational tool. This article devises one such conceptual framework to clarify and systematize varieties of state autonomy and state–society relations. By combining fundamental conceptions of action, elemental control mechanisms, and basic types of interaction, a comprehensive framework is constructed for characterizing and comparing governance modes in a conceptually coherent manner. Many of the abstract spaces within this conceptual field share affinities with types of state autonomy and state–society relations depicted in major theoretical approaches to national politics (i.e., authoritarianism, statism, pluralism, corporatism, institutionalism, and Marxism). This article uses this conceptual framework to systematize these major governance modes and to illuminate their coexistence in supranational governance by examining the European Union policy process.

Governance and sustainability: an investigation of the role of policy mediators in the European Union policy process

English This article argues that changing governance modes in the European Union (EU), including territorial multi-level governance and the dispersion of decision-making authority in policy networks, along with the separation of functions at all governance levels, is often characterised by fragmentation in the policy process. This causes difficulties for policy makers in identifying and avoiding unintended ex post policy outcomes, including ‘trade-offs’ between economic, social and environmental objectives that, in the context of sustainability, are sub-optimal. A case study of the implementation of the EU Ozone Depleting Substances Regulation in the UK tests this hypothesis. It is then suggested that policy mediators have an important role to play in facilitating the effective coordination of policy formulation and implementation in a manner commensurate with broad sustainable development objectives.

El Parlament de Catalunya: A Model for Regional Assertiveness in the EU?

Without the guarantees of a de jure federal system or clearly defined jurisdiction in external affairs, how can a regional legislature play a meaningful role in the European Union policy process? Such is the dilemma faced by constitutional regions and devolved parliaments in multiple EU member states, particularly Spain, Italy, France and the UK. Motivated by the observation that regional legislators in such countries increasingly profess to emulate the putative successes of the ‘Catalan model’, this article compares the observations and preferences of regional legislators in Catalonia and Scotland-with an eye to understanding why El Parlament de Catalunya lays claim to greater influence in EU decision-making and policy implementation processes. While not easily exportable to other similarly situated regions, the Catalan model reveals the significance not just of wresting competences from the centre, but also of professionalism, collective legislative competence and commitment to supranationalism.

The Impact of Europeanisation on Regional Governance: A Study of Catalonia and Scotland

This article examines the role of political elites in the Europeanisation of regional governance, arguing that domestic conceptions of governance shape the way in which elites view their participation in European Union (EU) decision-making. It compares and contrasts the experiences of Scotland and Catalonia, two ‘regions’ that have recently obtained greater political autonomy. The article begins by examining how European integration encouraged the decentralisation of power, providing contextual information on the devolution process and the current status of domestic constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom and Spain. It then examines how political elites are seeking greater participatory rights within the EU, evaluating the effectiveness of domestic and European channels of influence. Despite lacking formalised points of access to the EU policy process, the article argues that Catalan and Scottish elites have been successful in placing issues on the EU agenda and sustaining the debate on regional participation in EU decision-making. While the gradual formation of institutionalised channels of co-operation could lead to greater influence in the EU policy process over the long term, it would be more appropriate in the short-term to focus on the agenda-setting powers of regional elites.