EU Policy-Making and Implementation

"Much of EU activities can be described as policy-making. As a result, understanding policy-making is key to understanding how the EU functions and how it affects member states, EU citizens and the wider world. This section offers a platform for panels and papers that seek to (re)conceptualize and analyse EU policy-making in order to understand better how it works, how it has evolved over time and is currently evolving, and what this implies for the functioning, legitimacy and problem-solving capacity of the EU. The section invites panel and paper proposals on policy-making in the European Union in a broad sense. This includes processes of agenda-setting, decision-making, policy implementation and evaluation, as well as the roles of the various institutions and actors in these processes. It also invites contributions focused on concrete challenges facing the EU today – such as from Eurosceptic challenger parties within and from external threats in a new geopolitical reality – and EU policy responses to such challenges, their democratic legitimacy and potential to build long-term resilience. We invite qualitative and quantitative contributions, in-depth case studies, and extensive quantitative analyses. Theoretically, we are open to all approaches, including new and non-standard ways of looking at EU policy-making. Alongside proposals focusing on the EU level per se, we also welcome contributions that look at multi-level institutional and policy dynamics, draw comparisons between the EU and other political systems, or analyse policy-making dynamics between the EU and other states and international organizations. Panels that promise to advance the theoretical and empirical understanding of EU institutions and their role in policy-making and policy implementation processes, or that propose innovative methodologies, will be especially welcome."