Domestic and Direct Strategies of Sub-national Authorities in Response to the European Semester

The literature on the Europeanisation of intergovernmental relations is inconclusive. Some empirical evidence points into the direction of subnational authorities bypassing the national level on their way tot he EU, other empirical studies find subnational authorities to exploit domestic cooperation in response to EU pressure. The main question of this paper is whether Belgian subnational authorities choose for domestic intra-state strategies or rather for extra-state direct access to EU institutions in the case of the European Semester. It builds upon previous work (Beyers and Bursens 2007; 2013) concerning the impact of the EU on the Belgian federal system, which mainly looked at how Belgian government levels deal with EU legislation. The hypothesis in this paper is that the European semester overall triggers similar domestic intergovernmental relations compared to legislative dossiers, but also that economically stronger regions and regions that aspire international recognition will additionally use direct strategies as the European Semester entails a different, less less formal and less binding institutional context compared to the legislative context. Hence, under what conditions do different EU contexts trigger different domestic intergovernmental relations? This paper examines the intra-state and extra-state repsonse of Belgian regions by means of a detailed empirical account of their strategies towards National Reform Programs, Country Specific Recommendations and other instruments of the European Semester. The literature on the Europeanisation of intergovernmental relations is inconclusive. Some empirical evidence points into the direction of subnational authorities bypassing the national level on their way tot he EU, other empirical studies find subnational authorities to exploit domestic cooperation in response to EU pressure. The main question of this paper is whether Belgian subnational authorities choose for domestic intra-state strategies or rather for extra-state direct access to EU institutions in the case of the European Semester. It builds upon previous work (Beyers and Bursens 2007; 2013) concerning the impact of the EU on the Belgian federal system, which mainly looked at how Belgian government levels deal with EU legislation. The hypothesis in this paper is that the European semester overall triggers similar domestic intergovernmental relations compared to legislative dossiers, but also that economically stronger regions and regions that aspire international recognition will additionally use direct strategies as the European Semester entails a different, less less formal and less binding institutional context compared to the legislative context. Hence, under what conditions do different EU contexts trigger different domestic intergovernmental relations? This paper examines the intra-state and extra-state repsonse of Belgian regions by means of a detailed empirical account of their strategies towards National Reform Programs, Country Specific Recommendations and other instruments of the European Semester.