After conditionality
Post-accession compliance with EU law in East Central Europe
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7880697 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ulrich Sedelmeier (0000-0001-6963-4296, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 806-825 |
| Publication date | 2008-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of European Public Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1350-1763 • E-ISSN: 1466-4429 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13501760802196549 |
| OpenAlex | W2014509955 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 114 |
| References cited | 29 |
The European Union's pre-accession conditionality was very effective in prompting the alignment of the post-communist candidate countries with EU law. As the conditional membership incentive was the main factor driving alignment, the changing incentive structure after accession suggests that – ceteris paribus – post-accession compliance with EU law will deteriorate. Data on infringements of EU law allow us a first insight into whether this negative scenario has materialized. The data suggest that, far from constituting an 'eastern problem', virtually all of the new member states outperformed virtually all of the old members during the first four years of membership. To explain this unexpectedly good performance, further research should focus on two factors, both related to the experience of pre-accession conditionality: a greater susceptibility of the new member states to shaming and an institutional investment in legislative capacity. Keywords: Acquis communautairecomplianceconditionalityEast Central Europeenlargementpost-accession ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Research for this paper was supported by a Marie Curie Fellowship at the European University Institute, grant MEIF-CT-2005-514104. I am grateful for David Gudisch's assistance in compiling the data for Table 1. I would like to thank the participants at the Robert Schuman Centre's lunchtime seminar and at the workshop 'Beyond Conditionality' at the LSE, and in particular Jonas Tallberg, Radek Zubek, Antoaneta Dimitrova, Rachel Epstein and two reviewers. Notes 1 This article focuses only on the eight post-communist countries included in the 2004 enlargement. 2 There is no big difference between directives with a deadline in 2004 and those in 2005. For both EU8 and EU15 there is an increase of around 2 per cent in all categories
Accession · Conditionality · Economics · European union · Incentive · International trade · Legislature · Market economy · NOMINATE · Political science · Politics · Resizing · Rule of law · EU Law and Policy Analysis · European and International Law Studies · European Union Policy and Governance · Law
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| Unique citing works | 114 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 6,33 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2025 (18) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 112 |