European Union Public Policy
Professor John Wilton
Lecture 11
The ‘Europeanisation’ or ‘Regionalisation’ of public policy

Additional sources:
Tavora, I. ‘The southern European social model: familialism and the high rates of female employment
in Portugal’, in Journal of European Social Policy, Vol. 22, No. 1, February 2012, pp. 63-76.
Palier, B. (ed.) ‘A Long Goodbye to Bismarck? The Politics of Welfare Reform in Continental
Europe’, (Book Review Symposium) in Journal of European Social Policy, Vol. 22, No. 1, February
2012, pp.90- 101.

Additional sources:
Tugdar, E.E. (2013) ‘Europeanization of Minority Protection Policies in Latvia: E.U. Conditionality
and the Impact of Domestic Factors on the Rights of Ethnic Russians’, in CEU Political Science
Journal, Vol. 8, Issue 1, February, p31-53
(including Bibliography for good sources on ‘Europeanisation’)

European Union Public Policy
Lecture 11
1.What do we mean by Regions?
2.What is meant by E.U. regional policy
3.The ‘Europeanisation’ of Public Policy

European Union Public Policy
Lecture 11
1. What do we mean by ‘Regions’
- ‘Regions’ defined not just by economics, but also culture and history (language, customs,
traditions)
- Regions as institutions (over past 30 years)
- E.U. regions widely defined – dependent on level/amount of institutionalisation of regional
government
•
•

European Union Public Policy
Lecture 11
- Nation-state – under internal and external pressures
- Council of European Regions
- Committee of the Regions (established in Maastricht Treaty, 1993)
•
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European Union Public Policy
Lecture 11
2. What do we mean by E.U. regional policy
- aim of E.U. regional policy is to promote solidarity
- produce cohesion in E.U.
- based on principle of subsidiarity
- 276 regions, over 600 million people
•
•

European Union Public Policy
Lecture 11
-entire territories of 10 new Member States of May 2004 designated as falling within Objective 1 of
E.U. Structural Funds
-two-thirds of new E.U. citizens from 2004 accession states lived in regions with GDP per head of
less than half average GDP of all 25 E.U. states

European Union Public Policy
Lecture 11
http://civitas.brno.cz/en
CIVITAS Project ELAN – started 2002 – Brno, Ghent, Porto, Ljubljana, Zagreb (39 partners, Overall
budget 29.2 million euro, EU grant 17.85 million euro – 61%)
Goal of the project: ‘inclusion and support of citizens in development of the solutions for the
clean city ensuring quality environment and health of all the inhabitants’.

E.U. Public Policy
Lecture 11
3.  ‘Europeanisation’ of public policy
- E.U. ‘single public policy areas’?
- E.U. policies affect:
- policy style (formulation and implementation);
- general problem solving approach;
- policy instruments employed;
- policy standards set (based on E.U values and principles)

European Union Public Policy
Lecture 11
-Europeanisation of :
- pressure groups
- interest groups
- epistemic communities
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European Union Public Policy
Lecture 11
4 processes of ‘Europeanisation’ of policy:
a)‘bottom-up’ (national state – E.U.)
b)‘top-down’ (E.U. – national state)
c)‘horizontal’ (State – State)
d)‘round-about’ (national state – E.U. – national state)

European Union Public Policy
Lecture 11
‘Europeanisation’ based on underlying E.U. principles and ‘core values’:
- social progress;
- the aim of high levels of employment;
- social protection;
- the aim of raising living standards and quality of life;
- promotion of social cohesion and social justice

European Union Public Policy
Lecture 11
‘Europeanisation’
= overarching E.U. core values and principles, within which individual    policies are shaped, and
diversity and    ‘mutual recognition’ acknowledged,    particularly in implementation to     meet
policy aims