Analysing the Transfer and Circulation of European Norms: Making the Link between Internal and External EU Policies

The study of norm transfer and circulation has mobilised a large number of authors in the fields of International Relations and Sociology / Public Policies. Regarding European Studies, there were so far little attempts at linking literature on norm transfers regarding internal policies of the European Union (EU) and on norm circulation in EU foreign policies. At best, the large literature on (internal) Europeanisation was adopted to policies addressed at EU candidates and possible candidates (enlargement and neighbourhood policies) to highlight the possible extensions and limits of the concept. This paper focuses on actors and their perceptions in order to link the issues of norm transfer and circulation in internal and external EU policies : it is thus a way to show the continuity and limits between the two processes mobilising European actors, which are generally studied separately. It first gives an overview of the state of literature on policy transfers in both internal and external EU policies, before turning to more concrete examples from the field of environment, especially in Central and Eastern EU members. This case, which mainly focuses on discourse analysis and institutional reforms, shows that actors which are less « europeanised » in an internal EU policy field clearly encounter difficulties in gaining and valuing expertise and thus legitimacy in EU foreign policies. As other policy examples show, the reversed proposition also reveals valid.