Institutional Dynamics and the Transformation of Executive Politics in Europe
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Already published in the CONNEX Report Series: Volume 1: Michael Marsh, Slava Mikhaylov and Hermann Schmitt (Eds.): ”European Elections after Eastern Enlargement - Preliminary Results from the European Election Study 2004” The CONNEX Report Series No 1 575 p., Mannheim, Germany, January 2007 ISSN 1864-1539 Volume 2: Claes de Vreese and Hermann Schmitt (Eds.): ”A European Public Sphere - How much of it do we have and how much do we need?” The CONNEX Report Series No 2 426 p., Mannheim, Germany, July 2007 ISSN 1864-1539 online: http://www.connex-network.org/series Institutional Dynamics and the Transformation of Executive Politics in Europe Morten Egeberg (ed.) CONNEX Report Series Nr. 03 ISSN 1864-1539 online: http://www.connex-network.org/series Copyright © by the authors, CONNEX 2007 CONNEX – Network of Excellence University of Mannheim Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) 68131 Mannheim, Germany Tel: ++49 621 181 2840 Fax: ++49 621 181 2845 http://www.connex-network.org http://www.mzes.uni-mannheim.de Mannheim, December 2007 Cover, Layout & Typo by: Thomas Schneider, Oliver Schommer (MZES) Cover picture © by the European Commission II Editor Morten Egeberg is Director of ARENA Centre for European Studies, and Professor of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway. The CONNEX research group 1, ‘Institutional dynamics and the transformation of European politics’ gathers about 35 participants and has been coordinated by Morten Egeberg since the beginning of CONNEX in summer 2004. He has published several books, chapters and articles in international journals on governance and public administration at a national, as well as a European Union level. His latest book is: 'Multilevel Union Administration - The Transformation of Executive Politics in Europe", Palgrave 2006. III Table of contents Introduction Morten Egeberg .....…….………......………………..…….……......…… 1 Chapter 1 BRIDGING THE GAP: POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LEADERSHIP IN A REINVENTED EUROPEAN COMMISSION Anchrit Wille ....…….………………………….………….……….…… 7 Chapter 2 BUREAUCRATIC CHANGE IN THE EUROPEAN ADMINISTRATIVE SPACE - THE CASE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION Tim Balint and Michael W. Bauer and Christoph Knill …………………….…..............…………….……….… 43 Chapter 3 BEYOND THE MYTH OF NATIONALITY: ANALYZING NETWORKS WITHIN THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION Semin Suvarierol ………..…………….………….……………………… 83 Chapter 4 ETHICS MANAGEMENT IN THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION Michelle Cini …...………………………….…….……………………… 119 Chapter 5 “KEEPING COMPETENCE.” POLICY COORDINATION AS A MEANS FOR THE INSTITUTIONAL EMBEDMENT OF EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND REGIONAL POLICY Andrea Lenschow and Renate Reiter ..……………………………………………..…………… 149 IV Chapter 6 WHO CONSULTS? EXPERT GROUPS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION Åse Gornitzka and Ulf Sverdrup …………………………..………….……………………… 191 Chapter 7 ACHIEVING CONSENSUS WITHIN EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT COMMITTEES: HOW DOES THE PARLIAMENT (CONTINUE TO) MANAGE? Christine Neuhold and Pierpaolo Settembri …………………………..….…………….…….…… 231 Chapter 8 THE EU TIMESCAPE: AN EMERGENT TEMPORAL ORDER Klaus H. Goetz ………………………………..….…………….……… 263 Chapter 9 NATIONAL AGENCIES IN THE EUROPEAN ADMINISTRATIVE SPACE: GOVERNMENT DRIVEN, COMMISSION DRIVEN OR NETWORKED? Morten Egeberg and Jarle Trondal …….......………………………….…………………..…… 291 Chapter 10 ADMINISTRATIVE INTEGRATION THROUGH THE BACK DOOR? THE ROLE AND INFLUENCE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION IN TRANSGOVERNMENTAL NETWORKS WITHIN THE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY FIELD Maria Martens ......………………..…………….……………….........… 313 Chapter 11 OF PHONES AND PLANES: POLICY TRANSFER IN THE LIBERALIZATION OF EU PUBLIC SERVICES Simon Bulmer and Peter Humphreys ….………………………….……..…………........…… 343 V Chapter 12 TWINNING PROJECTS: ANALYSING THE EXPERIENCE OF “OLD” EU MEMBER STATES AND EVALUATING THE BENEFITS OF TWINNING OUT FOR THE “NEW” EU MEMBER STATES Eliška Tomalová and Elsa Tulmets ……….................................................…..........………… 379 Chapter 13 ADJUSTING TO THE EUROPEAN UNION: WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION ON PARTY AND GOVERNMENT POLICY POSITIONS? Jale Tosun and Marc Debus ………...................................................………………….. 429 Chapter 14 THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE SPANISH STATE OF THE AUTONOMIES Francesc Morata ……................................................………………….. 467 Chapter 15 MULTI-LEVEL GOVERNANCE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN SPAIN: THE CASE OF THE MISSING ACTORS Kenneth Hanf …….................................................…………...........…. 499 Chapter 16 BILATERAL DIPLOMACY IN AN INTEGRATED EUROPE: THE CO-EXISTENCE OF INSTITUTIONAL ORDERS? Øivind Bratberg …….................................................………………….. 533 VI Introduction Morten Egeberg University of Oslo, Norway The common focus of the CONNEX Research Group 1 (RG 1) is an interest in how the executive branch of government actually works in a multilevel system like the European Union. Executive bodies’ policy formulation and implementation activities are thought to be at least partly accounted for by considering the way they are organised and staffed, and by considering their relations to other institutions and the use of external incentives and sanctions. Understanding how executive institutions and their inter-institutional arrangements themselves change also constitutes a common focal point for our research group that gathers about 40 active participants organised in two teams. Team A (EU executive institutionalisation and reform) deals with how institutional and organisational features of EU executive bodies and their inter-institutional arrangements might impact on politico-administrative behaviour (policy-making and –implementation). A key focus is to understand the institutional/organisational conditions under which executive behaviour might transcend an intergovernmental logic so that a multi- dimensional pattern of cooperation and conflict emerges. This package also 2 Morten Egeberg deals with how institutional and organisational features of EU executive bodies themselves change. What are the scope conditions for purposeful reform? Which role does crises, contingent events, path dependence, imitation and intergovernmental bargaining play in processes of change? Team B (Europeanisation of nation-state executives) deals with implementation of EU policies at the national level. It also focuses on the particular conditions created by enlargement. In order to explain adaptation and implementation, it looks at the role of national administrative traditions/culture, external incentives, administrative capabilities, bureaucratic qualities and attention and motivation among executives. During its period of existence RG 1 has started to portray a changing executive order in Europe. Executive politics has grown in complexity in the sense that the intergovernmental pattern inherited from the past has been clearly complemented by new patterns of cooperation and conflict cutting across national boundaries as well. Such new patterns are probably related to two institutional developments; one at the European level and one at the national level. At the European level the structuring and consolidation of the European Commission as a new executive centre seem to bring sectoral, functional and inter-institutional conflicts to the fore. At the national level “agencification” opens up for new partnerships and autonomous contacts between executive bodies at the EU level (particularly the Commission) and semi-detached (from ministerial departments) regulatory authorities at the national level. Thus, national agencies become, as regards their policy formulation and implementation activities, to some extent parts of two administrations; on the one hand their respective national governments, on the other hand an emerging “Union administration”.1 Much in the same vein such duality seems to characterise regional governments in federalised states as well. Introduction 3 RG 1 held its third ‘general’ conference in Barcelona 7-9 June, 2007, hosted by Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. The papers which are compiled in this volume were all presented on this occasion and all of them may be situated within the panorama outlined above. Anchrit Wille deals with how the Commission has become ‘normalised’ as a political executive in the sense that we see a clearer demarcation of the institution’s political and administrative spheres. Tim Balint, Michael W. Bauer and Christoph Knill show that the Commission administration has moved closer to a British or Scandinavian type bureaucracy which means a less politicised and thus more independent administration than its continental origin should indicate. This seems to have happened more as a result of enlargement and crisis (Santer resignation) than as a result of comprehensive institutional design. Semin Suvarierol documents that the information networks of Commission officials can not be explained by their nationality: it is rather their organisational role that seems to matter. As part of the Commission’s institutionalisation process Michelle Cini discusses the extent to which the Commission has succeeded in shaping an ‘ethical infrastructure’ within its organisation. Andrea Lenschow and Renate Reiter analyse how the Commission might be better equipped to keep its already acquired competences by linking and integrating policy fields. As regards the Commission’s external relationships, Åse Gornitzka and Ulf Sverdrup unveil how the expert group system neatly reflects the Commission’s sectorally and functionally based organisation. Christine Neuhold