Miriam Hartlapp
Biographic Data
| ID | 307751 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Miriam Hartlapp |
| GIVEN NAMES | Miriam |
| FAMILY NAME | Hartlapp |
| SIGNATURE | HARTLAPP M |
| AFFILIATIONS | WZB Berlin Social Science Center |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2696-2748 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 375 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
How Conceptualisation Matters for Representation: The Case of Migrantised Groups
There is wide agreement in the literature that migrantised groups are underrepresented in political institutions. Who belongs to a migrantised group and the extent to which (under)representation is causally linked to the group’s constituent criteria remains less clear. Comparative political science research distinguishes two central concepts: migration background and visible minority. With each concept, different positions and shared experiences …
Still struggling to reach the top? Women officeholders and gendered career pathways in the European commission
This article assesses whether women face the same challenges in the European Commission as men by examining the career paths to top political and administrative positions. Drawing on a unique dataset, it investigates whether and, if so, how and when, women are disadvantaged. First, we analyze the characteristics and experience of all Commissioners and Directors General (2004–2019) to delineate the career paths to the top positions in the organiza…
Beyond ‘economic nationalism’? The (limited) influence of populist parties on public procurement in France and Germany
This paper explores the populist stance on public procurement policies and how populist parties exert influence on public procurement. The assessment of this influence is grounded in an original analysis of media reporting, and parliamentary questions posed by right- and left-wing populists in France and Germany. Despite the financial significance of procurement and its potential to bolster and protect national economies, the study reveals a rela…
Contesting Europe: Eurosceptic Dissent and Integration Polarization in the European Parliament
This article provides a comprehensive analysis of Eurosceptic contestation within the legislative arena of the European Parliament (EP) from 2009 to 2019. Under what conditions do Eurosceptics vote differently from their Europhile peers? The literatures on European integration, party competition and policy types lead us to expect variation in Eurosceptic contestation across policy areas. Drawing on roll‐call votes in the EP, we introduce two new …
Ever more soft law? A dataset to compare binding and non-binding EU law across policy areas and over time (2004–2019)
What characterizes European Union soft law and what are its implications for the EU multilevel system? What is the proportion of hard and soft law in EU policy? Which types of soft law act are adopted in different policy sectors? This article introduces the conceptual and analytical framework that encompasses the EfSoLaw dataset and explains its methodology, advantages, and limitations. This dataset unites information on thousands of EU hard and …
The use of EU soft law by national courts and bureaucrats: How Relation to Hard Law and Policy Maturity Matter
Soft law instruments account for a sizable share of EU legal acts, with growing importance over time. Yet, while the implementation of hard EU law has been widely studied, little is known about the use of EU soft law at the national level. In the article, it is firstly argued that the type of soft law instrument will affect national usage. Administrators and judges may welcome interpretative guidelines to complicated pieces of legislation, while …
Measuring and Comparing the Regulatory Welfare State: Social Objectives in Public Procurement
This article constructs an index that translates the substance of policy documents into numeric values across three dimensions of regulation-a qualitative assessment of policy substance, its potential impact, and enforcement of regulation-which aims to capture the strength of social objectives in the economy. It draws on theories of economic regulation and literature on the welfare state to develop a general understanding of social objectives. Th…
The end of social Europe? Understanding EU social policy change
The financial and economic crisis has increased attention on EU social policy, yet little policy change has been realized. Drawing on Easton’s political system approach, we differentiate demand emanating from the difficult situation following the crisis and support in form of the 2004, 2009 and 2014 European elections. On the output side, we show how social policy has been substantially removed from the priorities of the EU political agenda alrea…
From high judges to policy stakeholders: A public policy approach to the CJEU’s power
The debate about the power of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has mainly focussed on the preferences, perceptions and strategic considerations of the High Judges in Luxemburg. This Special Issue turns the analytical spotlight to another important determinant: the behaviour of actors with a stake in the policy conflicts resolved by the Court. Indeed, the CJEU’s influence depends, first, on being invited by stakeholders to interve…
Why some EU institutions litigate more often than others: Exploring opportunity structures and actor motivation in horizontal annulment actions
EU scholars have studied mobilization as a cross-level phenomenon. Individuals and organized interests seek preliminary rulings with the Court of Justice of the EU to challenge national rules. Likewise, the Commission takes member states to court where they infringe commonly agreed rules. However, litigation can also run horizontally in the EU system. EU institutions can go to court to annul actions of other EU institutions. Studying this so far …
Power Shifts via the Judicial Arena: How Annulments Cases between EU Institutions Shape Competence Allocation
Besides infringement and preliminary ruling procedures, actions for annulment form a third important category of procedures brought before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). A subset of these actions is ‘horizontal litigation’, where EU institutions litigate against other EU institutions. Based on a new dataset covering all horizontal annulment conflicts (1957–2017), this contribution analyzes conflict patterns. I identify the mos…
Mending the hole in multilevel implementation: Administrative cooperation related to worker mobility
European economic integration creates unintended consequences for national public administrations. This article offers a conceptual and empirical analysis of how these challenges are met. First, three challenges are identified: a reduced capacity to offer services to citizens who move freely, increasing administrative burdens, and negative externalities for all parts from a single states’ administrative failure. Second, a conceptual framework is …
Gewaltenteilung und Demokratie im EU-Mehrebenensystem
Wer mäßigt den Agenda-Setter im EU-System und wie? Drei Modi der Positionsbildung in der EU-Kommission
How time empowers agency: Combining the EU Commission’s political powers and its administration’s advantage of acting from a long-term perspective
Politics in time has recently gained in scholarly attention, particularly in the area of EU studies. This article adds to this literature by arguing that differences in administrative and political actors’ time horizon are particularly pronounced in the EU multilevel system and showing how this can be used strategically by actors. This matters because unlike national administrations with long-term perspectives, the EU Commission is endowed with p…
Integrating across policy sectors: How the wider public impacts on the drafting process of EU trans-border healthcare
Policy-making in the EU has been depicted as being starkly fragmented: initiatives are drafted in separate Directorates-General of the EU Commission, discussed in specific policy communities and decided upon in sectoral European Parliament Committees and Council formations. At the same time, we see growing numbers of complex policy problems that require cross-sectorally integrated solutions. This article argues that there are good grounds to expe…
La fin de l’Europe sociale ? Évaluation du rôle des changements politiques et organisationnels au sein du système politique de l’Union européenne
Partant de l’approche du système politique d’Easton, nous considérons les élections européennes de 2004, 2009 et 2014 et la crise économique et financière comme des inputs du système politique de l’Union européenne (UE). Du côté des outputs , la politique sociale ne faisait pas partie des priorités de l’agenda politique de l’UE avant même la crise. Pour comprendre cette discordance entre inputs (les demandes sociales) et outputs (les résultats), …
It's Not Always about Winning: Domestic Politics and Legal Success in EU Annulment Litigation
Why do EU Member State governments have such varying degrees of success when they initiate annulment actions against the European Commission? Usually litigant success is associated with arguments about judicial constraint or litigants' capacity. This article sheds light on domestic politics as an additional factor that can affect governments' success record in court. It is argued that governmental annulment actions are often part of a two‐level g…
Which Policy for Europe?: Power and Conflict inside the European Commission
An unprecedented inside view of the European Commission, and institution which substantially influences the legislative agenda of the European Union. Based on testimonies of 150 insiders, the authors show how the institution is significantly influenced by political power struggles that affect the rules that govern Europe.
Enforcing Social Europe through Labour Inspectorates: Changes in Capacity and Cooperation across Europe
Despite its central importance for the implementation of EU social policy, the issue of member state enforcement of European regulations has attracted little academic attention. This paper analyses changes in national enforcement systems and horizontal cooperation between them by comparing labour inspectorates in the EU-15 member states over time (2000 versus 2010). Starting from the assumption that, as administrations, enforcement systems are st…
Linking Agenda Setting to Coordination Structures: Bureaucratic Politics inside the European Commission
This article provides a detailed study of how bureaucratic politics in the European Commission can systematically affect the substance of the legislative agenda that makes up European integration. Based on an encompassing description of the bureaucratic policy-formulation process within the Commission, it shows how the Commission's different elements play off against each other and thereby systematically advantage the lead department and the Secr…
Personnes âgées: Une gouvernance européenne plus ancienne, plus large et plus influente que la MOC sur les retraites
Les États-nations étant attachés à leurs prérogatives en matière de politiques relatives aux personnes âgées, on pourrait en déduire que ces politiques se prêtent peu à un traitement au niveau supranational. Pourtant, un certain nombre d’instruments communautaires influent directement ou indirectement sur les politiques nationales conduites dans ce domaine. Alors que la recherche en sciences politiques s’intéresse essentiellement à la méthode ouv…
Much ado about money and how to spend it! Analysing 40 years of annulment cases against the European Union Commission
This article analyses four decades of annulment cases against the European Commission brought before the European Court of Justice by dissatisfied Member States. Annulment cases are interpreted as incidents of a struggle between Member State governments and the Commission about policy decisions. Studying annulment cases for the first time in comparative perspective, three important patterns of variation are identified: with respect to the evoluti…
The implementation of EU social policy: The ‘Southern Problem’ revisited
This article analyses the implementation of EU social policy in the Southern European member states. When studied by implementation research, Portugal, Greece, Italy and Spain are often treated as a homogeneous group, and some authors speak of a particular ‘Southern Problem’ while others contest this. In this article, we will take issue with central explanatory frameworks of this literature – the existence of a high level of policy misfit, ineffi…
Implementation of EU Social Policy Directives in Belgium: What Matters in Domestic Politics
This paper provides insight into the transposition in Belgium of six EU social policy directives adopted during the 1990s. Arguing that domestic politics matter for understanding transposition of EU policies in this country, it addresses the discordant findings concerning propositions about misfit, administrative inefficiencies and difficulties, as well as veto players. On the basis of an in‐depth country analysis, it shows how these concepts can…
Worlds of compliance: Why leading approaches to European Union implementation are only ‘sometimes‐true theories
This article summarises the main theoretical findings of a large‐scale qualitative project on the transposition, enforcement and application of six European Union labour law Directives in 15 Member States. Focusing on the transposition stage, its argument starts from a theoretical puzzle: When confronting the empirical results from the 91 cases covered in the article with the various hypotheses derived from the literature, it turns out that all c…
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 demonst…
Problems of Operationalization and Data in EU Compliance Research
Substantial theoretical, conceptual and empirical advances have been made in research on the implementation of EU policies during recent years. However, our findings have remained ambivalent and our theoretical insights disparate. It therefore seems high time to address some methodological issues and to raise awareness of the limits of the various approaches and of the data commonly used. We highlight the challenges of operationalizing and of cho…
Linking Agenda Setting to Coordination Structures: Bureaucratic Politics inside the European Commission
This article provides a detailed study of how bureaucratic politics in the European Commission can systematically affect the substance of the legislative agenda that makes up European integration. Based on an encompassing description of the bureaucratic policy-formulation process within the Commission, it shows how the Commission's different elements play off against each other and thereby systematically advantage the lead department and the Secr…
On Enforcement, Management and Persuasion: Different Logics of Implementation Policy in the EU and the ILO
This article helps to understand the effectiveness of EU legislation through analysing implementation policies and how they contribute to ensure Member State compliance. Comparing the EU and the ILO it provides new empirical data on instruments used to change Member State behaviour and presents conceptual tools to assess them along the lines of enforcement, management and persuasion
Contesting Europe: Eurosceptic Dissent and Integration Polarization in the European Parliament
This article provides a comprehensive analysis of Eurosceptic contestation within the legislative arena of the European Parliament (EP) from 2009 to 2019. Under what conditions do Eurosceptics vote differently from their Europhile peers? The literatures on European integration, party competition and policy types lead us to expect variation in Eurosceptic contestation across policy areas. Drawing on roll‐call votes in the EP, we introduce two new …
The end of social Europe? Understanding EU social policy change
The financial and economic crisis has increased attention on EU social policy, yet little policy change has been realized. Drawing on Easton’s political system approach, we differentiate demand emanating from the difficult situation following the crisis and support in form of the 2004, 2009 and 2014 European elections. On the output side, we show how social policy has been substantially removed from the priorities of the EU political agenda alrea…
Enforcing Social Europe through Labour Inspectorates: Changes in Capacity and Cooperation across Europe
Despite its central importance for the implementation of EU social policy, the issue of member state enforcement of European regulations has attracted little academic attention. This paper analyses changes in national enforcement systems and horizontal cooperation between them by comparing labour inspectorates in the EU-15 member states over time (2000 versus 2010). Starting from the assumption that, as administrations, enforcement systems are st…
The use of EU soft law by national courts and bureaucrats: How Relation to Hard Law and Policy Maturity Matter
Soft law instruments account for a sizable share of EU legal acts, with growing importance over time. Yet, while the implementation of hard EU law has been widely studied, little is known about the use of EU soft law at the national level. In the article, it is firstly argued that the type of soft law instrument will affect national usage. Administrators and judges may welcome interpretative guidelines to complicated pieces of legislation, while …
The implementation of EU social policy: The ‘Southern Problem’ revisited
This article analyses the implementation of EU social policy in the Southern European member states. When studied by implementation research, Portugal, Greece, Italy and Spain are often treated as a homogeneous group, and some authors speak of a particular ‘Southern Problem’ while others contest this. In this article, we will take issue with central explanatory frameworks of this literature – the existence of a high level of policy misfit, ineffi…
From high judges to policy stakeholders: A public policy approach to the CJEU’s power
The debate about the power of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has mainly focussed on the preferences, perceptions and strategic considerations of the High Judges in Luxemburg. This Special Issue turns the analytical spotlight to another important determinant: the behaviour of actors with a stake in the policy conflicts resolved by the Court. Indeed, the CJEU’s influence depends, first, on being invited by stakeholders to interve…
Mending the hole in multilevel implementation: Administrative cooperation related to worker mobility
European economic integration creates unintended consequences for national public administrations. This article offers a conceptual and empirical analysis of how these challenges are met. First, three challenges are identified: a reduced capacity to offer services to citizens who move freely, increasing administrative burdens, and negative externalities for all parts from a single states’ administrative failure. Second, a conceptual framework is …
It's Not Always about Winning: Domestic Politics and Legal Success in EU Annulment Litigation
Why do EU Member State governments have such varying degrees of success when they initiate annulment actions against the European Commission? Usually litigant success is associated with arguments about judicial constraint or litigants' capacity. This article sheds light on domestic politics as an additional factor that can affect governments' success record in court. It is argued that governmental annulment actions are often part of a two‐level g…
Much ado about money and how to spend it! Analysing 40 years of annulment cases against the European Union Commission
This article analyses four decades of annulment cases against the European Commission brought before the European Court of Justice by dissatisfied Member States. Annulment cases are interpreted as incidents of a struggle between Member State governments and the Commission about policy decisions. Studying annulment cases for the first time in comparative perspective, three important patterns of variation are identified: with respect to the evoluti…
When a solution becomes the problem: The causes of policy reversal on early exit from the labour force
Whereas governments had previously designed early exit policies to unburden labour markets, they have come increasingly to regard them as problematic. We investigate the reasons for this policy reversal, focusing on two key actors: governments and trade unions. Our mixed-methods approach entails two major steps: first, we embed approaches to policy reform in a common framework to show the empirical relevance of the two major actors in most OECD c…
Ever more soft law? A dataset to compare binding and non-binding EU law across policy areas and over time (2004–2019)
What characterizes European Union soft law and what are its implications for the EU multilevel system? What is the proportion of hard and soft law in EU policy? Which types of soft law act are adopted in different policy sectors? This article introduces the conceptual and analytical framework that encompasses the EfSoLaw dataset and explains its methodology, advantages, and limitations. This dataset unites information on thousands of EU hard and …
Still struggling to reach the top? Women officeholders and gendered career pathways in the European commission
This article assesses whether women face the same challenges in the European Commission as men by examining the career paths to top political and administrative positions. Drawing on a unique dataset, it investigates whether and, if so, how and when, women are disadvantaged. First, we analyze the characteristics and experience of all Commissioners and Directors General (2004–2019) to delineate the career paths to the top positions in the organiza…
Why some EU institutions litigate more often than others: Exploring opportunity structures and actor motivation in horizontal annulment actions
EU scholars have studied mobilization as a cross-level phenomenon. Individuals and organized interests seek preliminary rulings with the Court of Justice of the EU to challenge national rules. Likewise, the Commission takes member states to court where they infringe commonly agreed rules. However, litigation can also run horizontally in the EU system. EU institutions can go to court to annul actions of other EU institutions. Studying this so far …
How time empowers agency: Combining the EU Commission’s political powers and its administration’s advantage of acting from a long-term perspective
Politics in time has recently gained in scholarly attention, particularly in the area of EU studies. This article adds to this literature by arguing that differences in administrative and political actors’ time horizon are particularly pronounced in the EU multilevel system and showing how this can be used strategically by actors. This matters because unlike national administrations with long-term perspectives, the EU Commission is endowed with p…
Implementation of EU Social Policy Directives in Belgium: What Matters in Domestic Politics
This paper provides insight into the transposition in Belgium of six EU social policy directives adopted during the 1990s. Arguing that domestic politics matter for understanding transposition of EU policies in this country, it addresses the discordant findings concerning propositions about misfit, administrative inefficiencies and difficulties, as well as veto players. On the basis of an in‐depth country analysis, it shows how these concepts can…
Labour Market Policy for ‘Active Ageing’ in Europe: Expanding the Options for Retirement Transitions
Based on the theory of Transitional Labour Markets (TLM), this article derives normative criteria for ‘active ageing’. We argue why and under what conditions more employment for older people can help to improve their quality of life and can thus be considered an important part of future social policy. To this end, the article presents a brief review of the employment situation of older workers (aged 55–64) in the different European countries so a…
Beyond ‘economic nationalism’? The (limited) influence of populist parties on public procurement in France and Germany
This paper explores the populist stance on public procurement policies and how populist parties exert influence on public procurement. The assessment of this influence is grounded in an original analysis of media reporting, and parliamentary questions posed by right- and left-wing populists in France and Germany. Despite the financial significance of procurement and its potential to bolster and protect national economies, the study reveals a rela…
Integrating across policy sectors: How the wider public impacts on the drafting process of EU trans-border healthcare
Policy-making in the EU has been depicted as being starkly fragmented: initiatives are drafted in separate Directorates-General of the EU Commission, discussed in specific policy communities and decided upon in sectoral European Parliament Committees and Council formations. At the same time, we see growing numbers of complex policy problems that require cross-sectorally integrated solutions. This article argues that there are good grounds to expe…
Measuring and Comparing the Regulatory Welfare State: Social Objectives in Public Procurement
This article constructs an index that translates the substance of policy documents into numeric values across three dimensions of regulation-a qualitative assessment of policy substance, its potential impact, and enforcement of regulation-which aims to capture the strength of social objectives in the economy. It draws on theories of economic regulation and literature on the welfare state to develop a general understanding of social objectives. Th…
Power Shifts via the Judicial Arena: How Annulments Cases between EU Institutions Shape Competence Allocation
Besides infringement and preliminary ruling procedures, actions for annulment form a third important category of procedures brought before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). A subset of these actions is ‘horizontal litigation’, where EU institutions litigate against other EU institutions. Based on a new dataset covering all horizontal annulment conflicts (1957–2017), this contribution analyzes conflict patterns. I identify the mos…
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 demonst…
Complying with Europe: EU Harmonisation and Soft Law in the Member States
What does EU law truly mean for the member states? Do they abide or don't they? This book presents the first encompassing and in-depth empirical study of the effects of 'voluntaristic' and (partly) 'soft' EU policies in all 15 member states. The authors examine 90 case studies across a range of EU Directives and shed light on burning contemporary issues in political science, integration theory, and social policy. They reveal that there are major …
Worlds of compliance: Why leading approaches to European Union implementation are only ‘sometimes‐true theories
This article summarises the main theoretical findings of a large‐scale qualitative project on the transposition, enforcement and application of six European Union labour law Directives in 15 Member States. Focusing on the transposition stage, its argument starts from a theoretical puzzle: When confronting the empirical results from the 91 cases covered in the article with the various hypotheses derived from the literature, it turns out that all c…
On Enforcement, Management and Persuasion: Different Logics of Implementation Policy in the EU and the ILO
This article helps to understand the effectiveness of EU legislation through analysing implementation policies and how they contribute to ensure Member State compliance. Comparing the EU and the ILO it provides new empirical data on instruments used to change Member State behaviour and presents conceptual tools to assess them along the lines of enforcement, management and persuasion
When a solution becomes the problem: The causes of policy reversal on early exit from the labour force
Whereas governments had previously designed early exit policies to unburden labour markets, they have come increasingly to regard them as problematic. We investigate the reasons for this policy reversal, focusing on two key actors: governments and trade unions. Our mixed-methods approach entails two major steps: first, we embed approaches to policy reform in a common framework to show the empirical relevance of the two major actors in most OECD c…
Labour Market Policy for ‘Active Ageing’ in Europe: Expanding the Options for Retirement Transitions
Based on the theory of Transitional Labour Markets (TLM), this article derives normative criteria for ‘active ageing’. We argue why and under what conditions more employment for older people can help to improve their quality of life and can thus be considered an important part of future social policy. To this end, the article presents a brief review of the employment situation of older workers (aged 55–64) in the different European countries so a…
Implementation of EU Social Policy Directives in Belgium: What Matters in Domestic Politics
This paper provides insight into the transposition in Belgium of six EU social policy directives adopted during the 1990s. Arguing that domestic politics matter for understanding transposition of EU policies in this country, it addresses the discordant findings concerning propositions about misfit, administrative inefficiencies and difficulties, as well as veto players. On the basis of an in‐depth country analysis, it shows how these concepts can…
Problems of Operationalization and Data in EU Compliance Research
Substantial theoretical, conceptual and empirical advances have been made in research on the implementation of EU policies during recent years. However, our findings have remained ambivalent and our theoretical insights disparate. It therefore seems high time to address some methodological issues and to raise awareness of the limits of the various approaches and of the data commonly used. We highlight the challenges of operationalizing and of cho…
Much ado about money and how to spend it! Analysing 40 years of annulment cases against the European Union Commission
This article analyses four decades of annulment cases against the European Commission brought before the European Court of Justice by dissatisfied Member States. Annulment cases are interpreted as incidents of a struggle between Member State governments and the Commission about policy decisions. Studying annulment cases for the first time in comparative perspective, three important patterns of variation are identified: with respect to the evoluti…
The implementation of EU social policy: The ‘Southern Problem’ revisited
This article analyses the implementation of EU social policy in the Southern European member states. When studied by implementation research, Portugal, Greece, Italy and Spain are often treated as a homogeneous group, and some authors speak of a particular ‘Southern Problem’ while others contest this. In this article, we will take issue with central explanatory frameworks of this literature – the existence of a high level of policy misfit, ineffi…
Linking Agenda Setting to Coordination Structures: Bureaucratic Politics inside the European Commission
This article provides a detailed study of how bureaucratic politics in the European Commission can systematically affect the substance of the legislative agenda that makes up European integration. Based on an encompassing description of the bureaucratic policy-formulation process within the Commission, it shows how the Commission's different elements play off against each other and thereby systematically advantage the lead department and the Secr…
Personnes âgées: Une gouvernance européenne plus ancienne, plus large et plus influente que la MOC sur les retraites
Les États-nations étant attachés à leurs prérogatives en matière de politiques relatives aux personnes âgées, on pourrait en déduire que ces politiques se prêtent peu à un traitement au niveau supranational. Pourtant, un certain nombre d’instruments communautaires influent directement ou indirectement sur les politiques nationales conduites dans ce domaine. Alors que la recherche en sciences politiques s’intéresse essentiellement à la méthode ouv…
Which Policy for Europe?: Power and Conflict inside the European Commission
An unprecedented inside view of the European Commission, and institution which substantially influences the legislative agenda of the European Union. Based on testimonies of 150 insiders, the authors show how the institution is significantly influenced by political power struggles that affect the rules that govern Europe.
Enforcing Social Europe through Labour Inspectorates: Changes in Capacity and Cooperation across Europe
Despite its central importance for the implementation of EU social policy, the issue of member state enforcement of European regulations has attracted little academic attention. This paper analyses changes in national enforcement systems and horizontal cooperation between them by comparing labour inspectorates in the EU-15 member states over time (2000 versus 2010). Starting from the assumption that, as administrations, enforcement systems are st…
La fin de l’Europe sociale ? Évaluation du rôle des changements politiques et organisationnels au sein du système politique de l’Union européenne
Partant de l’approche du système politique d’Easton, nous considérons les élections européennes de 2004, 2009 et 2014 et la crise économique et financière comme des inputs du système politique de l’Union européenne (UE). Du côté des outputs , la politique sociale ne faisait pas partie des priorités de l’agenda politique de l’UE avant même la crise. Pour comprendre cette discordance entre inputs (les demandes sociales) et outputs (les résultats), …
It's Not Always about Winning: Domestic Politics and Legal Success in EU Annulment Litigation
Why do EU Member State governments have such varying degrees of success when they initiate annulment actions against the European Commission? Usually litigant success is associated with arguments about judicial constraint or litigants' capacity. This article sheds light on domestic politics as an additional factor that can affect governments' success record in court. It is argued that governmental annulment actions are often part of a two‐level g…
Gewaltenteilung und Demokratie im EU-Mehrebenensystem
Wer mäßigt den Agenda-Setter im EU-System und wie? Drei Modi der Positionsbildung in der EU-Kommission
How time empowers agency: Combining the EU Commission’s political powers and its administration’s advantage of acting from a long-term perspective
Politics in time has recently gained in scholarly attention, particularly in the area of EU studies. This article adds to this literature by arguing that differences in administrative and political actors’ time horizon are particularly pronounced in the EU multilevel system and showing how this can be used strategically by actors. This matters because unlike national administrations with long-term perspectives, the EU Commission is endowed with p…
Integrating across policy sectors: How the wider public impacts on the drafting process of EU trans-border healthcare
Policy-making in the EU has been depicted as being starkly fragmented: initiatives are drafted in separate Directorates-General of the EU Commission, discussed in specific policy communities and decided upon in sectoral European Parliament Committees and Council formations. At the same time, we see growing numbers of complex policy problems that require cross-sectorally integrated solutions. This article argues that there are good grounds to expe…
From high judges to policy stakeholders: A public policy approach to the CJEU’s power
The debate about the power of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has mainly focussed on the preferences, perceptions and strategic considerations of the High Judges in Luxemburg. This Special Issue turns the analytical spotlight to another important determinant: the behaviour of actors with a stake in the policy conflicts resolved by the Court. Indeed, the CJEU’s influence depends, first, on being invited by stakeholders to interve…
Why some EU institutions litigate more often than others: Exploring opportunity structures and actor motivation in horizontal annulment actions
EU scholars have studied mobilization as a cross-level phenomenon. Individuals and organized interests seek preliminary rulings with the Court of Justice of the EU to challenge national rules. Likewise, the Commission takes member states to court where they infringe commonly agreed rules. However, litigation can also run horizontally in the EU system. EU institutions can go to court to annul actions of other EU institutions. Studying this so far …
Power Shifts via the Judicial Arena: How Annulments Cases between EU Institutions Shape Competence Allocation
Besides infringement and preliminary ruling procedures, actions for annulment form a third important category of procedures brought before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). A subset of these actions is ‘horizontal litigation’, where EU institutions litigate against other EU institutions. Based on a new dataset covering all horizontal annulment conflicts (1957–2017), this contribution analyzes conflict patterns. I identify the mos…
Mending the hole in multilevel implementation: Administrative cooperation related to worker mobility
European economic integration creates unintended consequences for national public administrations. This article offers a conceptual and empirical analysis of how these challenges are met. First, three challenges are identified: a reduced capacity to offer services to citizens who move freely, increasing administrative burdens, and negative externalities for all parts from a single states’ administrative failure. Second, a conceptual framework is …
The end of social Europe? Understanding EU social policy change
The financial and economic crisis has increased attention on EU social policy, yet little policy change has been realized. Drawing on Easton’s political system approach, we differentiate demand emanating from the difficult situation following the crisis and support in form of the 2004, 2009 and 2014 European elections. On the output side, we show how social policy has been substantially removed from the priorities of the EU political agenda alrea…
Political science (31 works) · Economics (24 works) · European Union Policy and Governance (23 works) · Law (23 works) · Law (19 works) · European union (17 works) · Politics (15 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (12 works) · Law and economics (11 works) · Business (10 works)