Assessing the EU’s networked mode of governance for improving implementation and enforcement of joint policies

Abstract

This panel invites paper proposals on current developments and transformations in EU regulatory governance in the accommodation of national diversity in line with theories of networked regulation and the European administrative space. EU governance faces a fundamental implementation dilemma. On the one hand, calls for effective EU policies are manifold and have increased over time. On the other hand, the EU’s regulatory function remains controversial and member states jealously guard further delegation of competences to the EU level. How to ensure effective EU policy delivery, and hence the solution of pressing collective action problems, while the competence to implement and directly enforce EU policies remains with the member states? To bridge this gap, the Commission and the member states have gradually constructed a European Administrative Space (EAS) in which integrated national administrations share sovereignty. A key type of institutional filling in the EAS are European Administrative Networks (EANs): networks of national administrative units, such as agencies, ministries or civil servants with tasks in the realm of national implementation and enforcement of EU law. By exchanging best practices, pooling resources and monitoring each other´s performance, network interaction among civil servants across Europe should lead to policy convergence, increased cooperation and effective problem-solving. The papers in this panel assess to what extent the EU’s networked mode of governance succeeds in improving implementation and enforcement of joint policies. This panel aims to further detail and test the effects of political variables and considerations that drive network and agency dynamics. Furthermore, it advances our empirical knowledge of the functioning, impact and dynamics of networks. Finally, it engages in bridge-building between the literatures on networks and agencies, which so far have developed largely in mutual isolation from each other and engages in the question of the accountability dimension of the emerging institutional architecture.

Title	Details
Domestic constraints take many shapes: bypassing regulatory patchwork by Agency creation	View Paper Details
Learning from or with whom? Analysing learning mechanisms in European Administrative Networks	View Paper Details
Mapping the European administrative space: EU Agencies‘ Formal Independence over Time	View Paper Details
Network governance, vulnerable or resilient? SOLVIT’s network development in times of crisis	View Paper Details
Achieving supervisory convergence: the role of ESMA in fostering trust in networks of regulators	View Paper Details