Turning Swift Policy-making into Deadlock and Delay

Most member states of the European Union (EU) have some difficulty in transposing EU directives. Despite the obligation to comply with EU law, member states are often slow to adopt national policies implementing directives. In this paper I analyse this problem by focusing on the coordination of transposition in the domestic policy arena. Coordination is approached as a game in which one or more higher-level players decide on policy when lower-level players are unable to make a decision. Based on the model developed in the paper, lower-level players sometimes appear to have discretion in shaping the policy transposing a directive. Furthermore, if a single player coordinates the transposition process, the implementing policy differs from the policy specified by the directive. However, a decisionmaking process with more than one higher-level player can result in deadlock, leading to a literal transposition of a directive. Moreover, deadlock between the deciding players may delay the transposition process. Both mechanisms are illustrated by two cases of decision-making on EU directives in The Netherlands: the cocoa and chocolate products directive and the laying hens directive. The analysis shows that the framework developed in this paper contributes to the understanding of transposition.

[1]  George Tsebelis,et al.  Decision Making in Political Systems: Veto Players in Presidentialism, Parliamentarism, Multicameralism and Multipartyism , 1995, British Journal of Political Science.

[2]  Kevin Featherstone,et al.  The politics of europeanization , 2003 .

[3]  F. Franchino A Formal Model of Delegation in the European Union , 2002 .

[4]  M. Haverland National Autonomy, European Integration and the Politics of Packaging Waste , 1999 .

[5]  Sharyn O'Halloran,et al.  Delegating Powers: A Transaction Cost Politics Approach to Policy Making under Separate Powers , 1999 .

[6]  George Tsebelis,et al.  Veto Players: How Political Institutions Work , 2002 .

[7]  M. Horn The Political Economy of Public Administration: Institutional Choice in the Public Sector , 1995 .

[8]  Oliver Treib,et al.  "EU governance, misfit and the partisan logic of domestic adaptation: An actor-centered perspective on the transposition of EU directives" , 2003 .

[9]  Heather A. D. Mbaye Why National States Comply with Supranational Law , 2001 .

[10]  Bernard Steunenberg,et al.  EU policy, domestic interests, and the transposition of directives , 2004 .

[11]  James A. Caporaso,et al.  Transforming Europe: Europeanization and Domestic Change , 2001 .

[12]  G. Schneider,et al.  Nash versus Schelling? The Importance of Constraints in Legislative Bargaining , 2006 .

[13]  L. Gormley,et al.  Introduction to the law of the European Communities : from Maastricht to Amsterdam , 1998 .

[14]  M. Shanks Leaders and Laggards , 1973 .

[15]  Steffen Ganghof Promises and Pitfalls of Veto Player Analysis , 2003 .

[16]  Oliver Treib,et al.  Complying with Europe: EU Harmonisation and Soft Law in the Member States , 2005 .

[17]  F. V. Waarden,et al.  Convergence or diversity? : internationalization and economic policy response , 1995 .

[18]  Christoph Knill,et al.  European Policies: The Impact of National Administrative Traditions , 1998, Journal of Public Policy.

[19]  Tanja A. Börzel,et al.  The State of the European Union, 6: Law, Politics, and Society , 2003 .

[20]  Ellen Mastenbroek,et al.  Surviving the Deadline , 2003 .

[21]  A. Héritier,et al.  Differential Europe: The European Union Impact on National Policymaking , 2001 .

[22]  M. Giuliani Europeanization in comparative perspective : institutional fit and national adaptation , 2003 .

[23]  Gerda Falkner,et al.  Non-Compliance with EU Directives in the Member States: Opposition through the Backdoor? , 2004 .

[24]  R. Pahre Formal Theory and Case-Study Methods in EU Studies , 2005 .

[25]  Bruce Bueno de Mesquita,et al.  European Community Decision Making : Models, Applications, And Comparisons , 1994 .

[26]  Sara Berglund,et al.  Mass production of law. routinization in the transposition of European directives: a sociological- institutionalist account , 2006 .

[27]  Francesco Duina,et al.  Explaining Legal Implementation in the European Union , 1997 .

[28]  A. Héritier,et al.  Policy-Making and Diversity in Europe: Escape from Deadlock , 1999 .

[29]  B. Steunenberg Agent discretion, regulatory policymaking, and different institutional arrangements , 1996 .

[30]  Tanja A. Börzel,et al.  Why there is no 'southern problem'. On environmental leaders and laggards in the European Union , 2000 .

[31]  Markus Haverland,et al.  National Adaptation to European Integration: The Importance of Institutional Veto Points , 2000, Journal of Public Policy.

[32]  Michael Kaeding Determinants of Transposition Delay in the European Union , 2006, Journal of Public Policy.

[33]  F. Stokman,et al.  Winners and Losers in the European Union , 2004 .

[34]  B. Steunenberg,et al.  Between Power and Luck , 2004 .

[35]  A.C.M. Meuwese,et al.  De omzetting van Europese richtlijnen: Instrumenten, technieken en processen in zes lidstaten vergeleken , 2005 .

[36]  Tanja A Börzel Guarding the Treaty: The Compliance Strategies of the European Commission , 2003 .

[37]  Antoaneta Dimitrova,et al.  The Search for Convergence of National Policies in the European Union , 2000 .

[38]  Adrienne Héritier,et al.  The accommodation of diversity in European policy‐making and its outcomes: Regulatory policy as a patchwork , 1996 .

[39]  F. Franchino Delegating Powers in the European Community , 2001, British Journal of Political Science.

[40]  Héritier,et al.  Policy-Making and Diversity in Europe , 1999 .

[41]  Hugh Clout,et al.  Making European policies work: the implementation of community legislation in the member states , 1990 .

[42]  Andrea Lenschow,et al.  Coping with Europe : the impact of British and German administrations on the implementation of EU environmental policy , 1998 .

[43]  B. Peters,et al.  The National Co-ordination of EU Policy: the domestic level , 2000 .