Policy monitoring in the EU: The impact of institutions, implementation, and quality

Policy monitoring is often seen as a crucial ingredient of policy evaluation, but theoretically informed empirical analyses of real-world policy monitoring practices are still rare. This paper addresses this gap by focusing on climate policy monitoring in the European Union, which has a relatively stringent system of greenhouse gas monitoring but a much less demanding approach to monitoring policies. It explores how institutional settings, policy implementation, and the quality of information may impact the practices and politics of policy monitoring. Drawing on quantitative regression models and qualitative interviews, it demonstrates that policy monitoring has evolved over time and is itself subject to implementation pressures, but also exhibits learning effects that improve its quality. In further developing both everyday policy monitoring practices and academic understanding of them, there is a need to pay attention to their design—specifically, the impact of any overarching rules, the institutional support for implementation, and the criteria governing the quality of the information they deliver. In short, policy monitoring should be treated as a governance activity in its own right, raising many different design challenges

Cell mediated immune response to L5P in longitudinal study of heifers from naturally<em> Mycobacterium avium</em> subsp <em>paratuberculosis</em> infected herd

National audiencePeptidyl moiety of cell wall lipopentapeptide (L5P) specific of Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis (Map) is immunogenic and a target for specific humoral response in Map infected animals. A chemically synthesized L5P is able to induce specific cell mediated immune response (CMIR) in IFN-γ release assay (IGRA) in selected cows from Map infected herds comparatively to non-infected or M. bovis infected. Following these observations, the aim of this study was to evaluate if L5P was an antigen of early specific immune response and potentially a predictive tool of Map infection. 113 heifers of 6 herds were included in a two years’ longitudinal study: 71 animals from three Map culture-confirmed herds, 11 animals from a Map infected herd Silirum® vaccinated during the study and 31 animals from two certified Map free herds. The analysis of the CMIR was investigated by IGRA following whole blood stimulation with synthetic L5P or mycobacterium purified protein derivative (PPD) from M. avium (PPDa), M. bovis (PPDb), Map (PPDj) and M. phlei (PPDp). Humoral immune response was quantified by L5P-based ELISA using an internal procedure and two commercial Map kits. Moreover, bacilli excretion was estimated by isolation and culture from faecal sample. PPDs’ CMIR was more or less high depending of infected herds context, became high over 2 S/P ratio for 10/11 animals just after Silirum® vaccination and was low, less than 0.1 S/P ratio, in certified Map free herds. L5P CMIR was observed in 9 of 71 animals from Map culture-confirmed herds. These 9 animals with a L5P CMIR positive between 0.05 and 0.6 S/P ratio were from the same herd, knowing that L5P CMIR was previously detected in all included Map culture-confirmed herds. L5P CMIR was fluctuant as already described for PPD but was significantly correlated with PPDj CMIR. For 2 of the 9 animals, the L5P CMIR was predictive of the Map positive serology, whereas it was concomitant with seropositivity for 2 others and that for 5 animals was several times observed without seroconversion. And no seroconversion was observed in other herds. The continuation of this study would assess the predictive potential of L5P CMIR for paratuberculosis diagnosis

Experts versus politicians: The role of partisan ideology in European Union employment policy

This study examines the role of partisanship in the effectiveness of the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs. As a soft governance approach, Lisbon aims to disseminate best practices on labour market policy across EU member states. The policy learning view, as the underlying philosophy of Lisbon, holds that national governments can learn new and better policy practices through interaction with alternative ideas. In contrast, the partisanship approach suggests that governments choose only the components of the Lisbon strategy fitting the ideological preferences of the political parties in government. In this article, I analyse the labour market policies of Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden in two separate years to trace the effects of the Lisbon strategy in varying political environments. The study reveals that the governments of these countries do not give equal attention to all recommendations and guidelines; they address in particular those recommendations and guidelines that fit the ideological preferences of the incumbent parties

An Instruments Approach to European Governance in Education

This chapter outlines the instruments approach to studying European governance used in this book. It draws from public administration, political science and public policy literature that (1) evaluates the effects of policy instruments, (2) appreciates the choice of policy instruments and (3) unpacks the process through which policy instrumentation occurs, and it discusses each of these research strains with the objective to pinpoint main definitions, standpoints, benefits and uses. On this ground, this chapter outlines the instruments approach employed to investigate how European governance, specifically policy coordination, facilitates domestic adaptation of Europe\u2019s lifelong learning markets. Such approach assumes policy coordination as central for the enactment of European governance in adult education