The Nationalization of European Policies: Rural Development Policies in Ireland and Portugal

The European Union (EU) has impacted its Member States (MS) in several ways. The argument of this investigation is that one of those, less studied, is the Nationalization of European Policies. I argue that this is the process by which some MS use the external pressure promoted by the EU to go beyond European directives, and develop their own national policies, taking advantage of windows of opportunity, knowledge acquired and resources already installed, after the implementation of those European policies. I wanted to understand which factors determine that some MS of the EU have nationalized European policies, providing them with their own framework and budget, and others have limited themselves to implementing European directives. Drawing attention to the role of MS as active actors in the Europeanization process, the fact that some countries opted for the Nationalization of European Policies and others did not, suggest that the implementation of these policies resonated differently in the different MS, impacting and being received in different ways, at the various domestic, political, social and economic contexts, that is, the various starting points. Designed as a case study and comparative investigation, this research looks at the case study of the Rural Development Policies, comparing two similar countries in many indicators that had different outcomes: Ireland – a country that went beyond European directives – and Portugal – a country that limited itself to implementing European directives. Using the Process Tracing methodology I describe the political, national and European contexts and analyse the decision-making processes at the governmental and parliamentary levels, carried out by the two countries, concerning the programs of Rural Development Policies in the period 1989-2006. In order to do so, I used the triangulation between several sources: secondary literature, official documents, party manifestos, governmental programs and extensive interviews with privileged political actors.