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The Europeanisation of national institutions reassessed: A comparison of regional policies in Germany and Italy

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Comparative European Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

This article explores an aspect of Europeanisation which notions of ‘adaptive pressure’ and ‘usage’ of European policies have tended to neglect: in a complex policy field such as regional policy it is the evolving nature and heterogeneity of (different) domestic institutional arrangements which will shape and determine the opportunities for domestic actors to exploit European policies. The article explains the differential impact of European regional policies in eastern Germany and southern Italy by focusing on the different domestic institutional settings and the competition between domestic actors for the position of gatekeeper in relation to the Commission. Despite similar exposure to European regional policies, the existence of ‘parallel institutions’ in German regional policy proved to be the basis for an empowerment of the regions through the reinforcement of one institutional arrangement at the expense of the other while limiting change within the institutions. By contrast, the dichotomous nature of formal and informal rules and institutions in Italian policies for the south resulted in the exploitation of European regional policy by a national actor in order to drive through change in governance and administration.

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Notes

  1. See also Crouch and Keune (2005, p. 86) who refer to ‘a small and identifiable range of diversity’.

  2. The article will not consider ‘objective two’ regions in Germany and Italy where EU-funding provided was much less significant and regulations less intrusive for public administration.

  3. The research entailed about 30 semi-structured, mostly triangulated interviews with officials and non-state actors at the European, national and regional levels between 2004 and 2006. Later publications confirmed our findings in the Italian case (Graziano, 2010) and slightly modified them in the German case which witnessed a limited increase in the participation of non-state actors (Ziegler, 2008).

  4. For example, Saxony, in June 2005, was recalibrating the various European funds, and an official in the fund administration indicated that Saxony would not be willing to accept any objections from the Commission (Interview, June 2005).

  5. Commission representatives lamented the lack of competition among evaluators and an ‘evaluation culture’ in Germany (Interview Brussels, November 2005). Officials at the national ministry and non-state actors warned of contacts being too close between the few evaluators and the regional ministries (Interviews in Ministry of Finance, Berlin, October 2004 and with trade union representative Saxony, representative of environmental group, Saxony-Anhalt, May 2005).

  6. Interview with F. Barca, Rome, May 2004; also interview with C. Desideri, Istituto per lo studio delle regioni, Rome May 2004.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the journal's three anonymous referees for their excellent suggestions on improving the argument in the article. Except where otherwise evident, translations are by the authors.

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Baudner, J., Bull, M. The Europeanisation of national institutions reassessed: A comparison of regional policies in Germany and Italy. Comp Eur Polit 11, 201–221 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2012.17

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