This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.The study of multilevel governance (MLG) is fundamentally concerned with the capacity of
multilevel governance to effectively deal with policy problems. However, the notion of
problem-solving itself remains vague. Moreover, MLG research prioritizes questions of
structure and agency, while neglecting the role and nature of policy problems themselves. This
symposium defines problem-solving in both procedural and operational terms. The introduction
reviews relevant attributes of policy problems and existing assumptions about their influence
on problem-solving. By adding uncertainty, tractability, and three political attributes (power,
conflict, salience), we propose an extended list of attributes of policy problems that matter for
problem-solving, and link them to different notions of procedural and operational problemsolving in MLG. The contributions address the challenges facing problem-solving in the
European Union, adopting a particular focus on the characteristics of policy problems.
Empirical cases include the European Semester, Brexit, the governance of the swine flu
pandemic, and climate change
