Conforming neither to the hierarchical and bureaucratic organization of the European nation-state nor the anarchical structure of international organizations, the European Union (EU) and its predecessors provide an exemplary site for developing a decentred approach to the study of governance. The book offers an analysis of the formation and transformation of the EU as an example of governance above the nation-state and is framed by the recognition that the construction of the EU has resulted in variegated and decentred forms of governance. The chapters look at distinct aspects of EU governance to bring to light the influence of elite narratives, scientific rationalities, local traditions and meaningful practices in the making and remaking of European governance. As such, each chapter offers a unique contribution to the study of the EU. In doing so, the book challenges dominant narratives of European integration and policymaking that appeal to reified rationalities and social structures, and uncovers the contingency and conflict endemic to European governance. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Union politics, European politics/studies, governance and, more broadly, to public management, international organizations, anthropology and sociology.

Providing a comprehensive and authoritative analyses of the impact of the Eurozone crisis on the European social dimension since 2010 - understood as the European Union’s (EU) competence in employment and social policy - this book focusses on developments in five policy areas (employment, poverty and social exclusion, pensions, wages and healthcare), all of which form part of the EU’s economic reform strategy, Europe 2020. It combines original empirical material and uses a unique theoretical approach to analyse the issue of EU governance and reveals that ‘progress’ under Europe 2020 has its consequences; notably a strengthened Brussels-led neoliberal prescription for EU social and employment policy problems. By drawing insights from political sociology and the strategic-relational approach to actors/institutions, this book will be of interest to students and scholars interested in EU politics, EU governance, political sociology, public policy and European integration.

This book investigates to what extent and how the European Semester impacts on national employment policy in four EU member states of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region. Using an original theoretical and methodological framework, and based on empirical evidence from extensive interviews with experts in the field, this book examines the relation between EU preferences, exemplified by the yearly list of country-specific recommendations, and national policy responses to EU suggestions, tracing the extent to which policy change can be attributed to the influence of the European Semester. It extracts three potential mechanisms of European Semester influence on policy change: External pressure, mutual learning and creative appropriation and identifies key contributing and inhibiting factors. The book provides several policy recommendations regarding the organisation and workings of the European Semester process. This text will be of key interest to students, academics and practitioners in European and EU politics, EU socio-economic governance, EU social policy, European integration, soft Europeanization and the Europeanization of Central and Eastern Europe.

This book brings together the expertise of economists, legal scholars, political scientists, and sociologists in order to integrate diverse perspectives and a broad range of analytical tools in the conceptualisation of labour mobility. It examines how variably the question of labour mobility has translated into the policies, laws, and norms through which the EU as a whole is governed. The contributions focus on the actors – European and national officials, experts, trade union and employers’ organisations – and on instruments implemented by institutions and political organisations – European Agency, coordination systems, European Job Mobility Portal (EURES) – to increase and support mobility within the European Union. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European/EU studies, migration studies, labour studies, political sociology, and more broadly to comparative politics.

The Eurozone and the European Union have recently been confronted with a number of existential threats. The sovereign debt crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have forced European decisionmakers to pass important reforms which have radically transformed the nature and scope of the Union's powers in the field of economic and fiscal policy. As the new economic governance of the Eurozone emerges as the main driver of integration in today's Europe, this book seeks to assess the solidity of the constitutional foundations supporting that system, and its compliance with the Union's core founding value: the rule of law. Using competence allocation, regulatory quality, access to external review and fundamental rights sustainability as analytical benchmarks, this book argues that the recent metamorphosis of Eurozone economic governance has not been accompanied by a parallel strengthening of its constitutional settlement, leading to a problematic misalignment between the Union's action and its governing principles.

This book explores what drives value politics and the way in which it redraws political conflict at EU level. Based on case studies and analyses of statistical data, the book shows what the uses and roles of values have been at EU level over the past decades in both market-related policies and in identity, cultural and morality policies. It challenges the common assumption that the latter is more driven by value conflicts. The research shows the intrinsic similarities between all policy areas regarding the agency and limits of values as drivers of change or continuity. It argues that European values are a broad and flexible symbolic repertoire instrumentalised to serve as a resource for mobilization, legitimation/delegitimation, the conquest and conservation of power. This book will be of key interest to both scholars and students in European studies/politics, comparative politics, public policy, political theory, sociology and cultural studies, as well as appealing to professionals of European affairs within and around the EU institutions.

This book provides an in-depth empirical analysis and theoretical history of the institutional development of EU police cooperation, with a focus on the creation and integration of Europol. Presenting a thoroughly comprehensive analysis, the book systematically traces integration dynamics and the evolution of EU police cooperation over a 40-year period, assessing the influence of cross-country interdependencies, politicisation and policy entrepreneurship on Member States’ behaviour and institutional choice. By combining a wealth of sources including previously unpublished sources and personal insights from key decision-makers, it explores which driving factors shape processes of differentiation and integration in this sovereignty-sensitive policy domain, and how, and attempts to explain state preferences on international police cooperation in the light of major theories of European integration. The book will be of key interest to students, scholars and practitioners working in or on the fields of police cooperation, Justice and Home Affairs policy, EU governance and security studies, both at national and European level.

This collection provides a balanced evaluation of multi-level governance. Written by international experts of policy-making in the European Union, each contribution builds on common conceptual definitions, critically debating their adaptation to policy-specific contexts and investigating their usefulness for conducting empirical research. This engaging text uses case studies to identify the specific changes that have occurred in power relations across different levels of the EU system. With varying emphasis on state and non-state actors, on country comparisons and international processes, the reader is invited to join a fruitful dialogue among the contributors about the symbiotic relationship of multi-level analysis with other conceptual innovations such as transnational regulation, network formation or market internationalization. This book confronts sophisticated theoretical reasoning with the actual realities of policy-making and is therefore essential reading for all those interested in the risks and opportunities of a comparative-interdisciplinary approach to European governance.

This book examines the actorness of the European Parliament (EP) and its roles in global health. In doing so, it appreciates to what extent this democratically elected entity can be considered as a global health actor. Applying an original analytical framework to measure actorness, the book assesses the EP’s capacity to act regarding five major global health issues including the pandemic response, access to essential medicines in developing countries, international trade and global health, medical research and development in the field of poverty-related and neglected diseases (PRNDs), and global health governance. It demonstrates that, despite many challenges, the EP has indeed displayed a polymorphic actorness and multiple roles towards most of these global health issues, especially by succeeding in mobilizing its main competences and instruments to deal with them, finalizing initiatives, and having a substantive influence on the way they were addressed. As such, the book reveals the salience of democratically elected institutions for global health governance. This book will be of key interest to students and scholars of European studies, global and regional health, legislative studies, and International Relations, but also to parliamentarians and (non-) governmental actors engaged in global health.

This handbook comprehensively explores the European Union’s institutional and policy responses to crises across policy domains and institutions – including the Euro crisis, Brexit, the Ukraine crisis, the refugee crisis, as well as the global health crisis resulting from COVID-19. It contributes to our understanding of how crisis affects institutional change and continuity, decision-making behavior and processes, and public policy-making. It offers a systematic discussion of how the existing repertoire of theories understand crisis and how well they capture times of unrest and events of disintegration. More generally, the handbook looks at how public organizations cope with crises, and thus probes how sustainable and resilient public organizations are in times of crisis and unrest.