Do they matter? The enforcement impact of European Administrative Networks

European Administrative Networks (EANs) are presented as key parts of the European Union’s (EU) institutional architecture to monitor the national implementation and enforcement of EU legislation. However, their national impact remains little explored. In this paper, we examine network members’ perceptions of EANs ability to improve the national enforcement of EU legislation and which factors may explain variation between member states. Our analysis focuses on the application of EU health and safety at work legislation monitored by the Senior Labour Inspectors Committee (SLIC). Based on unique survey data and interviews with key respondents, we find that the network is generally perceived as very important for different functions, including for improving the application of EU legislation back home – albeit to different degrees. We show that the position of individual members in the network as well as domestic resources matter for the perception of network impact.