From Cooperation to Coordination: the Evolution of European Administrative Networks

How do European Administrative Networks change over time? Certain EANs have been operational for over two decades: they have witnessed and responded to change in the European policy system. Yet, our understanding of their evolution is limited. We do not know whether and how networks change their function and whether and how this is reflected in collaboration patterns between the members. This paper explores this question in the empirical case of the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER). The collaborative governance literature expects networks to evolve from centralized structures of coordination – where actors form open structures that span the network searching for information - to decentralized structures of cooperation – where actors establish reciprocal and redundant ties to monitor each other’s contribution to the cooperation problem. The evolution of the CEER shows the opposite tendency: it started off as a decentralized structure of cooperation, and developed into a centralized structure of coordination. This shows that it fostered integration. The analysis traces this process along the legislative development of European energy policy. The findings suggest that EANs have the ability to foster administrative integration via informal collaboration.