The Study of EU Public Policy: Results of a Survey

This note reports the results of a survey of all the articles on EU policies published since 1994 in three major journals. It makes four recommendations. We should probably invest more research time on (1) established policy areas that are at the core of the Union, (2) the study of policy adjudication and the role of courts in the EU policy process, (3) confirmatory theory-testing research and (4) strategies that increase the number of observations, in order to make more use of statistical estimation techniques

Transparency vs efficiency? A study of negotiations in the Council of the European Union

Recent studies suggest there is a direct trade-off between transparency and efficiency in legislative politics. We challenge this conclusion and present a bargaining model where one particular kind of transparency - the publication of legislative records - works to overcome problems of incomplete information. We also present empirical findings from legislative activities in the Council of the European Union from 1999 to 2014, and from 23 interviews with senior officials in Brussels. Our results show that increased transparency, in the form of publication of legislative records, does not lead to gridlock or prolonged negotiations. On the contrary, recordings of governments’ positions help facilitate decision-making as it increases credibility of policy positions. This, in turn, lowers risk of negotiation failure and screens out marginal amendments

The role of subnational authorities in the implementation of EU directives

'Studien zur Rolle von Regionen in der EU-Politik konzentrierten sich bislang hauptsächlich auf die politische Aushandlung und Implementation von Strukturfonds. In diesem Beitrag möchten die Autoren diese Schieflage durch eine Untersuchung der formalen Rolle subnationaler Verwaltungen bei der Implementation von EU-Regulierungen, insbesondere bei der Umsetzung von Richtlinien, zurechtrücken. Subnationale Verwaltungen spielen eine zweitrangige, aber zunehmend wichtige Rolle bei der Anwendung dieser Maßnahmen. Ihr Einfluss ist relativ groß in der Umwelt- und Sozialpolitik, ebenso bei der Verhinderung von Korruption bei der Vergabe öffentlicher Aufträge. In dezentralen Staaten zeigt sich eine höhere Stufe subnationaler Einbindung, allerdings verringert sich durch die Beteiligung der Regionen an der nationalen Politik und durch eine hohe Anzahl an regionalen Verwaltungsbehörden die Wahrscheinlichkeit, subnationale Umsetzungsinitiativen zu finden. Außerdem ist die subnationale Einbindung stärker in Staaten mit regionalen Gebieten, die sowohl über eine gewählte Regierung als auch über eine spezielle Vereinbarung zu ihren EU-Beziehungen verfügen. Schließlich kann subnationale Einbindung zu einer Verlängerung des Umsetzungsprozesses führen.' (Autorenreferat)'Studies on the role of regions in the EU policy process concentrate mainly on policy formulation and implementation of regional funds. In this article, the authors redress this bias by investigating the formal role of subnational authorities in the implementation of EU regulatory policies, specifically in the transposition of directives. Subnational authorities play a secondary, but increasingly important, role in the application of these measures. Their impact is greater on environmental and social policies, as also on public contract legislation. More decentralized states display higher levels of subnational involvement but, in these states, regional participation in national policymaking and a high number of regional authorities decrease the likelihood of finding subnational measures of transposition. There is also more subnational involvement in states with territories that have both an elected government as well as special arrangements regulating their relations with the EU. Finally, subnational involvement tends to prolong the process of transposition.' (author's abstract)

Noncompliance risk and asymmetric power: explaining the views of EU member states on economic governance reforms

The design of the EU’s system of economic governance has caused frequent disagreements between member states. Drawing on a new study, Fabio Franchino and Camilla Mariotto demonstrate how the risks posed to member states from noncompliance and the distribution of bargaining power in the Council help explain the stances governments have taken on economic governance reforms

Executive and bureaucratic politics in the European Union: bureaucratic preferences, executive discretion and procedural control of the European Commission

The neofunctionalist literature asserts that supranational institutions play a crucial role in shaping the process of European integration. Yet, it is not apparently obvious why institutions with far less capabilities and resources than national ones can be so effective. The thesis tries to explain this puzzle focusing on the European Commission. It takes up two related questions: Which motives drive this institution. Under which conditions does it reach its objective (and, hence, affect integration). In other words, the thesis applies domestic theories of bureaucratic and executive politics to the European Union. First, it tests Niskanen's and Dunleavy's hypotheses on bureaucratic preferences on the Union competition and regional policies. It asserts the preeminence of the work-related preferences of the Commission, consisting of managerial discretion and broad scope of functions. Second, it uses a formal model of EU legislative politics and the work of Epstein and O'Halloran and of Gilligan and Krehbiel to quantitatively test the factors that increase the statutory discretion delegated to the Commission. The results show that the uncertainty facing Union legislators about policy actions, policy types and informal decision rules are the most important determinants. Finally, it uses the work of McCubbins and Page to quantitatively test the factors that increase the likelihood and the stringency of procedural controls of the Commission's functions. The results show that unanimity, level of conflict among the Union institutions and uncertainty are key determinants for the establishment of these controls. Level of conflict and uncertainty are also important factors affecting the degree of stringency in control. In conclusion, the Commission enjoys broader discretion and, hence, affects integration when 1) qualified majority is used in the Council and 2) only the Commission is in charge of implementation. However, we should be cautious about its actual room of maneuver because broader discretion correlates positively with the stringency of control

The divergent social attitudes toward nuclear energy across Europe help explain why states have pursued radically different nuclear policies

Policies toward nuclear energy vary considerably between European states, but what factors explain why different countries adopt different approaches? Using Eurobarometer data, Fabio Franchino writes on the social bases underpinning nuclear energy policies. He shows that elements such as ideology and the proximity of individuals to power plants have different effects on nuclear attitudes across Europe, which may provide an explanation for the varied policy trajectories of European countries

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

The Role of Subnational Authorities in the Implementation of EU Directives. IHS Political Science Series No. 119, November 2009

Studies on the role of regions in the EU policy process concentrate mainly on policy formulation and implementation of regional funds. In this article, we redress this bias by investigating the formal role of subnational authorities in the implementation of EU regulatory policies, specifically in the transposition of directives. Subnational authorities play a secondary, but increasingly important, role in the application of these measures. Their impact is greater on environmental and social policies, as also on public contract legislation. More decentralized states display higher levels of subnational involvement but, in these states, regional participation in national policymaking and a high number of regional authorities decrease the likelihood of finding subnational measures of transposition. There is also more subnational involvement in states with territories that have both an elected government as well as special arrangements regulating their relations with the EU. Finally, subnational involvement tends to prolong the process of transposition