The Policy Consequences of the European Project : From Politics to Policies in the EU and the Member States

Abstract

Uniting at first six, now 28 sovereign nation states within a new political entity that adds another level of political competence and, with deepening integration, asks its members to increasingly surrender sovereignty sounds like a sheer impossible endeavor. Yet, political elites in Europe have pushed this process leading to what we now know to be the European Union. Since its very start, the Union has attracted researchers’ attention. Almost every puzzle of the Union’s institutional development, increasing membership and competencies, decision-making, and acceptance both from the elites and the public’s viewpoint has been uncovered. Surprisingly little is known, however, about the consequences of European integration from a domestic, comparative politics perspective.This cumulative dissertation tackles the consequences of multilevel governance in three ways: The first paper-chapter analyzes the neglected effects of Europeanization in the member states, thereby emphasizing the full extent of deepening European integration’s consequences for member states’ policy-making. Building on this new insight into the strong European influences on domestic policy-making, the question who actually cares for citizens’ concerns, who represents Europe’s citizens, becomes crucial for the second chapter. Finally, the focus on national influences on the European level and their feedback effects on members’ acceptance of a common European path helps to understand the complex interaction of multilevel governance and its consequences.In fact, the influences of the European level and their domestic consequences turn out stronger than expected: shifting competencies to the European level allow domestic policymakers to re-allocate their policy attention; multilevel policy-making provides citizens with an additional level of representation; EU-level agenda-setting and decision-making is both nationally determined and has distinct consequences for national outputs and the convergence of EU member states’ policy agendas.