Non-conformable, partial and conformable transposition: A competing risk analysis of the transposition process of directives in the EU15
Although member states are obliged to transpose directives into domestic law in a conformable manner and receive considerable time for their transposition activities, we identify three levels of transposition outcomes for EU directives: conformable, partially conformable and non-conformable. Compared with existing transposition models, which do not distinguish between different transposition outcomes, we examine the factors influencing each transposition process by means of a competing risk analysis. We find that preference-related factors, in particular the disagreement of a member state and the Commission regarding a directive’s outcome, play a much more strategic role than has to date acknowledged in the transposition literature. Whereas disagreement of a member state delays conformable transposition, it speeds up non-conformable transposition. Disagreement of the Commission only prolongs the transposition process. We therefore conclude that a stronger focus on an effective sa |
Everyone's a winner (almost): Bargaining success in the Council of Ministers of the European Union
This paper examines member state bargaining success in legislative negotiations in the European Union. Bargaining success is thought to be determined by factors attributable to intervention behaviour, relative policy positions and power. Intervention relates to a member state’s efforts to make its position known over the course of negotiations, relative policy positions relate to a member state’s position in the policy space under negotiation relative to other actors’ positions, and power refers to the size of the member state. New measures for bargaining success are introduced that account for the saliency of the legislative proposals under consideration. The results presented suggest that there are more winners than losers when measuring bargaining success. |
Press release - EU 2011 budget: EU countries must take more management responsibility, say MEPs - Committee on Budgetary Control
The European Commission's management of EU spending under the 2011 budget was approved by the Budgetary Control Committee on Monday. However, MEPs also urged EU member states to take more responsibility for managing EU funds spent on their territory.Committee on Budgetary Control Source : © European Union, 2013 - EP |
Representation in the European Parliament: Factors affecting the attitude congruence of voters and candidates in the EP elections
This article examines the extent to which individual-, party- and system-level characteristics affect the attitude congruence of voters and candidates for elections to the European Parliament. It examines attitudes towards basic policy packages in the socioeconomic and libertarian/authoritarian issue domains and on immigration and European Union integration. The analysis is based on the 2009 European Election Study and European Election Candidate Survey, which covered 27 countries of the European Union (EU), 162 parties and over 11,500 respondents. It shows that the European Parliament suffers from inequalities in representation for different groups of citizens, representing much better the attitudes of educated, middle-class and politically knowledgeable voters. Furthermore, the analysis uncovers significant differences across political parties in how well they match up to voters. We provide tentative evidence suggesting that voters are better represented in open and ordered ballot sy |
