Differences in EU Policy Implementation: How Divides over Values can Impact Policy

This paper explores how values affect the decentralized implementation of EU policy in member states. Divides over values may contribute to differences in implementation. In a framework developed in this paper, three distinct divisions are considered: divides over values within the adopted EU policy, between the decentralized implementers, and between the EU policy and the decentralized implementers. These divisions affect implementation in specific ways and lead to different outcomes, among others, maintaining current differences or tensions leading to change in the existing legislative policy. The implications of our framework are illustrated by analyses of the implementation of two major EU policies. First, EU Citizens’ Rights policy establishing a level-playing field on citizen mobility, built upon various sets of competing values, and second, the EU Clean Air policy setting minimum standards for cleaner air, based on shared values. We demonstrate that the different values underlying the Citizens’ Rights policy leads to differences in implementation, while in the case of the EU Clean Air policy shared values do not cause differentiation. Instead, for clean air the discussions are mostly focused on increasing ambition levels and improving the measurement of ‘clean air’.