A member state like any other? Germany and the European integration of core state powers

Explaining Sub‐Federal Variation in Trade Agreement Negotiations: The Case of CETA

“…By focusing on variation in sub-federal activity, we build on scholarship that explains the general occurrence of greater sub-federal activity. The existing literature arguably aligns with the two 'grand theories' of European integration, post-functionalism (Hooghe and Marks, 2016) and liberal intergovernmentalism (Moravcsik, 2018; see also Freudlsperger and Jachtenfuchs, 2021). Accordingly, researchers more in line with the former explain sub-federal engagement as a consequence of social mobilization and the politicization of trade policy (De Bièvre, 2020;Duina, 2019).…”

After Merkel – The 2021 German Election and its Implications for European Union Politics

“…But Germany concedes to supranational demands only in situations where supranational capacities appear unavoidable. State‐like capacities are combined with intergovernmental control and, if possible, these concessions are temporal (Fabbrini & Puetter, 2016; Freudlsperger & Jachtenfuchs, 2021). Others have stressed the ideological tradition of ordoliberalism (Matthijs, 2016; Nedergaard & Snaith, 2015; Schäfer, 2016; Young, 2014).…”

One step forward, two steps back: the ambiguous role of Germany in EU Asylum policies

“…In principle, this policy area fits the ideal-type defining 'supranational control of national capacities' (see Table 1 in the introduction to the special issue; (Freudlsperger and Jachtenfuchs 2021)): Member states decided not to upload their substantive capacities in the area of asylum (i.e. deciding who qualifies as a beneficiary of international protection and where they should reside), but gave supranational actors the regulatory tools to supervise member states and ensure that they were working towards a common goal (namely, preventing secondary movements and 'asylum-shopping').…”

“…The Core State Power framework presented in the introduction (Freudlsperger and Jachtenfuchs 2021) considers that state elites decide on the form and extent of integration depending on the trade-off between the material costs of integrating further and the status quo costs of not doing so. In the case of asylum, state elites comprise officials from the Interior Ministry, as well as regional (Länder) and local authorities responsible for the distribution and living conditions of asylum-seekers.…”

“…We consider EU asylum policies a 'critical case' (Yin 2018, 49) to test the Core State Power framework proposed by this special issue, since the state's prerogative to decide on the entry and stay of non-citizens is closely linked to the concept of national sovereignty. In order to test the hypotheses set out in the introduction (Freudlsperger and Jachtenfuchs 2021), we base our case study on a qualitative content analysis (Schreier 2012) of original interviews with policymakers from the EU institutions, press articles and other documents, as well as secondary data. More information on the original data can be found in the online methodological annex.…”