The Diverse Development of European Networks: The Cases of CESR and ECN

European networks are increasingly becoming crucial venues for European governance. They typically emerged as relatively loose groups of national authorities in charge of meta-coordinating sectoral policies through soft law instruments. However, on the medium term, they experienced very different developmental patterns. On the one hand, some networks (such as The Committee of European Securities Regulators - CESR) have been progressively institutionalized, transformed into agencies, and acquired considerable regulatory powers, including enforcement. On the other hand, other networks (such as the European Competition Network - ECN) remained largely informal and unstructured. This paper aims at mapping these divergent patterns, exploring their determinants, and examining their consequences. To do so, an interview-based qualitative inquiry will be applied to the cases of CESR and ECN.