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The Europeanization of Law-Making Activities in Spain

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The Europeanization of Domestic Legislatures

Part of the book series: Studies in Public Choice ((SIPC))

Abstract

The first goal of this chapter is to explain how Europeanization has affected Spanish legislative activity over time, from 1986 to 2007, and across policy areas. The analysis illustrates that the impact and scope of European integration on Spanish law-making is still far from reaching Jacques Delors’ prediction that by 1998 the European Community would be the source of 80% of national legislation (economic legislation with a possible extension to fiscal and social legislation). The Europeanization of law-making activities has increased steadily since Spain’s entry to the European Economic Community (EEC, later EU) in 1986, and especially after the implementation of the Economic and Monetary Union. For the last three decades, Spanish law-making activities have come under ever-increasing pressure to adapt to common European standards with regard to the what and how of regulation (Jenny and Müller 2009). Nonetheless, only 35% of all the laws passed over the last three decades have been linked to Europe; and as expected, the impact of the EU has been concentrated in specific policy areas, especially those related to the single market and the environment. Overall, 63% of environmental and agricultural legislation and 56% of economic and fiscal legislation is related to the EU, compared with only 25% of laws on welfare issues.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Anna M. Palau & Laura Chaqués

Authors
  1. Anna M. Palau
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  2. Laura Chaqués
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Correspondence to Anna M. Palau .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre Emile Durkheim, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, 33405, France

    Sylvain Brouard

  2. Centre Emile Durkheim, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, 33405, France

    Olivier Costa

  3. , Department of Political Science, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, 68131, Germany

    Thomas König

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Palau, A.M., Chaqués, L. (2012). The Europeanization of Law-Making Activities in Spain. In: Brouard, S., Costa, O., König, T. (eds) The Europeanization of Domestic Legislatures. Studies in Public Choice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1502-2_10

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