Constitutionalising Europe: Processes and Practices by Michael Longo

Author:Michael Longo [Longo, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Constitutions, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781351949392
Google: tYFBDgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 34478249
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

The Dimensions of Europeanisation

Börzel and Risse have commented that ‘[f]or decades, European studies have mostly been concerned with explaining European integration and Europeanization processes themselves’44 with a view to accounting for the emerging European polity from diverse perspectives, viz. neofunctionalism, liberal intergovernmentalism and multi-level governance.45 Such research adopted a ‘bottom up’46 approach ‘in which the dynamics and the outcome of the European institution-building process are the main dependent variable’.47 Among the many writers in this field, this ‘institution-centred’ approach is perhaps best represented by Wallace and Wallace.48 Notwithstanding the undoubted value of such an approach, Börzel and Risse foreshadow the need for further research ‘analysing the impact of European integration and Europeanization on domestic political and social processes of the member states and beyond’.49 Accordingly, the move towards a ‘top down’50 or non-institutionalist perspective is required to determine how ‘European integration and Europeanization generally affect domestic policies, politics, and polities of the member states’.51 This approach is justifiable on the basis that the nature and extent of Europeanisation can be ascertained only through comprehensive, integrated study of the impact of European institutions, processes, laws and policies on the polities of the Member States, in recognition of the often ignored fact that the EU constitutes, simultaneously, an autonomous structure of governance perpetuated through the institution-building process with which the Member States are directly concerned (bottom up or institutionalist perspective), and a structure designed to transform the political, social and legal systems of its constituent states through the various processes of Europeanisation, including harmonisation (top down perspective). The tendency of the Europeanisation process to effect change upwards and downwards in the European multi-level governance structure shows the necessity of taking into account the various dimensions of the Europeanisation process in the related, though broader, process of EU constitution building.

More and more policy decisions are being made at EC level within an expanding policy arena.52 Already, the EU makes approximately 500 policy decisions per year, while the current armoury of Community legislation comprises in excess of 5,000 directives and regulations.53 Europeanisation is, however, subject to varying rates of implementation within the domestic legal systems, which threaten and retard the process. While the events of 11 September 2001 have seen an increase in the rate of implementation of a range of EU legislative instruments as well as the development of policy,54 the trend has not been uniform.

Europeanisation may be understood as ‘the most explicit and advanced example of the process of continental unification’.55 The process traces ‘the emergence of new rules, norms, practices, and structures of meaning … which [Member States] have to incorporate into their domestic structures’.56 Börzel and Risse test the general proposition that whether the focus is on policies, politics or polity, Europeanisation brings about substantial changes in the Member States and conclude that ‘a misfit between European-level and domestic processes, policies, or institutions constitutes the necessary condition for expecting any change’.57 The domestic impact may, however, be differential demonstrating that adaptational pressures alone are insufficient to produce such change.58

Thus, ‘[t]here

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