How values shape EU policies: Legislative ambiguity, political conflict, and policy implementation

Conflicts over values that emerge during legislative negotiations can contribute to variation in the implementation of EU policy. Often embedded in ambiguity or discretionary provisions, unresolved tensions between competing values can be deferred to later stages of the policy process, where implementing actors shape the interpretation and application of policy. The framework developed in this paper distinguishes between different types of value divides that may arise within systems of multi-level governance and shows how these divides influence implementation in different ways. To illustrate this argument, the paper examines two contrasting EU policy areas. The first concerns the free movement of persons, which aims to ensure equal conditions for citizen mobility while being grounded in multiple and often competing values. The second is the recently revised EU ambient air quality policy, which establishes minimum standards for cleaner air and rests on broadly shared values. The analysis suggests that the diversity of values underlying the free movement policy contributes to differentiated implementation across contexts, whereas the more widely shared values underpinning the air quality policy constrain such variation. Although tentative, the findings indicate that values deserve further attention as a factor shaping policy implementation.