Abstract
In this chapter, we analyse the general issues of policy implementation in Europe. Policy definition and implementation is a complex problem in the European Union due to the presence of a large number of member states, each with very diverse economic, social and cultural interests needing to be accommodated. The successive enlargements of the number of member states have forced change in the decision-making rules, replacing the traditional unanimous vote by a qualified majority vote in order to avoid too frequent vetoes that would make the Union ungovernable. The framework of the differentiated integration theory is analysed as it allows for an interpretation of the flexibility mechanisms used to accommodate the diverse interests of the member states. A short presentation of the delegation theory is also presented, allowing us to analyse the problems of partial delegation of sovereignty to the European Commission. The traditional community method and soft law are critically compared and the problems of convergence are analysed. The role of the European Court of Justice is considered as the ultimate interpreter of what the legislation means.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Amaral, A., & Neave, G. (2009). On Bologna, weasels and creeping competence. In A. Amaral, G. Neave, C. Musselin, & P. Maassen (Eds.), European integration and governance of higher education and research (pp. 271–289). Dordrecht: Springer.
Biagi, M. (2000). The impact of European employment strategy on the role of labour law and industrial relations. International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations, 16(2), 155–173.
Borras, S., & Jacobsson, K. (2004). The open method of coordination and new governance patterns in the EU. Journal of European Public Policy, 11(2), 185–208.
de Burca, G. (1999). Reappraising subsidiarity’s significance after Amsterdam. Seminar and Workshop on Advanced Issues in Law and Policy of the European Union, NAFTA and the WTO, Harvard Jean Monnet Working Paper 7/99, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA.
de la Porte, C., & Nanz, P. (2004). The OMC – a deliberative-democratic mode of governance? The cases of employment and pensions. Journal of European Public Policy, 11, 267–288. Retrieved from http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=13006492.
Dehousse, R. (2002). The open method of coordination: A new policy paradigm?. Paper presented at the First Pan-European Conference on European Union Politics “The Politics of European Integration: Academic Acquis and Future Challenges”, Bordeaux, 26–28 September.
Dehousse, R. (2005). The Lisbon strategy: The costs of non-delegation. Paper presented at the workshop on Delegation and Multi-level Governance, Science Po, Paris, 11 May.
Dill, D., & Soo, M. (2004). Transparency and quality in higher education markets. In P. Teixeira, B. Jongbloed, D. Dill, & A. Amaral (Eds.), Markets in higher education: Rhetoric or reality? (pp. 61–85). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Dolowitz, D., & Marsh, D. (2000). Learning from abroad: The role of policy transfer in contemporary policy-making. Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration, 13(1), 5–24.
Education and Training 2020. (2009). Council conclusions of 12 May 2009 on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (‘E/2020’). Official Journal C119/2 of 28.05.2009.
Emmanouilidis, J.A. (2007). Institutional consequences of differentiated integration. C.A.P. Discussion Paper.
ERT (European Round Table of Industrialists). (1996). Benchmarking for policy-makers. The way to competitiveness, growth and job creation. Report by the European Round Table of Industrialists. Brussels: ERT.
European Commission. (2004). New indicators on education and training, SEC 1524. Brussels: European Commission.
European Commission. (2005). Working together for growth and jobs. Next steps in implementing the revised Lisbon strategy, SEC (2005) 622/2. Brussels: European Commission.
European Council. (1966). Minutes of the Extraordinary Session of the Council, Luxembourg, 17to 18 and 28 to 29 January 1966.
European Council. (2000). Presidency conclusions. Lisbon European Council, 23–24 March, Lisbon.
European Council. (2009). Council Conclusions on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (“ET 2020”) Brussels.
Fagforbundet. (2008). The EU services directive and the public services—A Norwegian perspective. Oslo: Fagforbundet.
Gornitzka, Å. (2009). Networking administration in areas of national sensitivity: The commission and European higher education. In A. Amaral, G. Neave, C. Musselin, & P. Maassen (Eds.), European integration and governance of higher education and research (pp. 103–125). Dordrecht: Springer.
Guzman, A.T., & Meyer, T.L. (2009). Explaining soft law. UC Berkeley Public Law Research Paper no. 135444.
Hagedorn, F. (2003). The Community method vs. Intergovernmental method in the European Constitution. Paper presented in the seminar Internal Reform and the Constitution Building Capacities, April 2003, Warsaw.
Heinze, T., & Knill, C. (2008). Analysing the differential impact of the Bologna Process: Theoretical considerations on national conditions for international policy convergence. Higher Education, 56(4), 493–510.
Holzinger, K., & Schimmelfennig, F. (2012). Differentiated integration in the European Union: Many concepts, sparse theory, few data. Journal of European Public Policy, 19(2), 292–305.
Hooghe, L., & Marks, G. (2001). Multi-level governance and European integration. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Idema, T., & Kelemen, R. D. (2006). New modes of governance, the open method of co-ordination and other fashionable Red Herring. Perspectives on European Politics and Society, 7(1), 108–123.
Jenson, J., & Pochet, P. (2002). Employment and Social Policy since Maastricht: Standing up to the European Monetary Union. Paper presented at the Conference The Year of the Euro, University of Notre-Dame, December 2002.
Kassim, H., & Menon, A. (2002). The principal-agent approach and the study of the European Union: A provisional assessment. Working Paper Series, European Research Institute, University of Birmingham, Birmingham.
Kölliker, A. (2001). Bringing together or driving apart the union? Towards a theory of differentiated integration. West European Politics, 24(4), 125–151.
Kröger, S. (2004). Let’s talk about it—Theorizing the OMC (Inclusion) in light of its real life application. Paper presented at the doctoral meeting of the Jean Monnet chair of the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris, section “Public Policies in Europe”, 11 June, Paris.
Netherlands Council for Social Development. (2004). European coordination, local effects? Towards an effective implementation of the European social inclusion strategy in the Netherlands. The Hague: Netherlands Council for Social Development.
Newman, J. (2003). Rethinking governance: Critical reflections on theory and practice. Paper presented at the conference Changing European Societies? The Role for Social Policy, Copenhagen, 13–15 November.
Peña-Casas, R., & Pochet, P. (2001). Les indicateurs monétaires et non monétaires de pauvreté et d’exclusion sociale dans une perspective européenne. Rapport réalisé pour le ministère des Affaires sociales, de la Santé publique et de l’Environnement. Brussels.
Pollack, M. (1997). Delegation, agency and agenda setting in the European Community. International Organization, 51(1), 99–134.
Pollack, M. (2000). The end of creeping competence? EU Policy-making since Maastricht. Journal of Common Market Studies, 38(3), 519–538.
de la Porte, C., & Pochet, P. (2001). Social benchmarking, policy making and new governance in the EU. Journal of European Social Policy, 11(4), 291–307.
de la Porte, C., Pochet, P., & Room, G. (2001). Social benchmarking, policy-making and the instruments of new governance in the EU. CEuS-Working Paper no. 2001/7. Retrieved 30 January 2012, from http://www.monnet-centre.uni-bremen.de/pdf/wp/2001-7-Porte-Pochet-Room.pdf.
Prendergast, C. (2001). Selection oversight in the public sector, with the Los Angeles police department as an example. NBEC Working Paper 8664. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Radaelli, C. (2000). Policy transfer in the European Union: Institutional isomorphism as a source of legitimacy. Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration, 13(1), 25–43.
Sabel, C.F., & Zeitlin, J. (2006). Learning from difference: The new architecture of experimentalist governance in the European Union. Working Paper Series, La Follette School of Public Affairs, Working Paper no. 2006–018. Madison: University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Sappington, D. E. M. (1991). Incentives in principal-agent relationship. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 5(2), 45–66.
Schäfer, A. (2004). Beyond the community method: Why the open method of coordination was introduced to EU policy-making. European Integration Online Papers, 8(13), 1–19.
Scharpf, F. W. (1997). Games real actors play: Actor-centered institutionalism in policy research. Boulder: Westview Press.
Scharpf, W. F. (2006). The Joint-Decision Trap Revisited. Journal of Common Market Studies, 44, 845–864.
Scott, J., & Trubek, D. M. (2002). Mind the gap: Law and new approaches to governance in the European Union. European Law Journal, 8(1), 1–18.
Stubb, A. (1996). A categorization of differentiated integration. Journal of Common Market Studies, 34(2), 283–295.
Thatcher, M., & Stone Sweet, A. (Eds.). (2002). Theory and practice of delegation to non-majoritarian institutions. West European Politics, 25(1), pp. 1–22.
Tilford, S., & Whyte, P. (2009). The Lisbon scorecard IX: How to emerge from the wreckage. London: Centre for European Reform.
Tindemans, L. (1976). European Union—Report by Leo Tindemans to the European Council. Bulletin of the European Communities, 1(76).
Trubek, D. M., & Mosher, J. (2003). New governance, employment policy, and the European social model. In J. Zeitlin & D. M. Trubek (Eds.), Governing work and welfare in a new economy: European and American experiments (pp. 33–58). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Trubek, D. M., & Trubek, L. G. (2005). Hard and soft law in the construction of social Europe: The role of the open method of co-ordination. European Law Journal, 11(3), 343–364.
Veiga, A., & Amaral, A. (2006). The open method of coordination and the implementation of the Bologna process. Tertiary Education and Management, 12(4), 283–295. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11233-006-9005-4.
Veiga, A., & Amaral, A. (2009). Policy implementation tools and European governance. In A. Amaral, G. Neave, C. Musselin, & P. Maassen (Eds.), European integration and governance of higher education and research (pp. 127–151). Dordrecht: Springer.
Veiga, A., Magalhães, A., & Amaral, A. (2015). Differentiated integration and the Bologna Process. Journal of Contemporary European Research, 11(1), 84–102.
Veiga, A., & Neave, G. (2015). Managing the dynamics of the Bologna reforms: How institutional actors re-construct the policy framework. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23(59). Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v23.1891.
de Waele, H. (2010). The role of the European Court of Justice in the integration process: A contemporary and normative assessment. Hanse Law Review, 6(1), 3–26.
Wallace, H. (2000). Defending state autonomy. Intergovernmental governance in the European Union. In H. Wallace & W. Wallace (Eds.), Policy-making in the European Union (pp. 3–37). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sin, C., Veiga, A., Amaral, A. (2016). General Issues of European Policy. In: European Policy Implementation and Higher Education. Issues in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50462-3_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50462-3_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-50461-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-50462-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)