Made to Measure? Europeanization, Goodness of Fit and Adaptation Pressures in EU Competition Policy and Regional Aid

Abstract

Made to Measure? Europeanization, 'goodness of fit' and adaptation pressures in EU competition policy and regional aid European Policy Research Paper, No. 61 European Policies Research Centre ii Made to Measure? Europeanization, 'goodness of fit' and adaptation pressures in EU competition policy and regional aid ABSTRACTIncreasing at t ent ion has been devot ed t o underst anding t he process and out comes of Europeanizat ion, but t he measurement of it s impact and of t he adapt at ional pressures involved remains elusive. Convent ional const ruct s of Europeanizat ion view ' goodness of fit ' as a key indicat or of t he level of adapt at ional pressure. However, t he number and variet y of fact ors t o consider cast s doubt on t he usefulness of t his concept as a predict or of out comes, as opposed t o an ex post explanat ory variable.The measurement of Europeanizat ion and adapt at ional pressures can be facilit at ed by t hree element s: adopt ing an EU-wide perspect ive t o enable a comparat ive assessment of impact s and out comes; using a clear example of a new European level policy init iat ive t hat impact s on all Member St at es simult aneously; and a det ailed knowledge of t he ex ant e and ex post sit uat ion in each Member St at e. The case st udy analysed here incorporat es all t hese element s.In 1998 t he European Commission int roduced regional St at e aid guidelines t hat were explicit ly modelled on t he German approach t o regional aid. From 2000 t hese rules were t o be imposed on all t he Member St at es, almost all of which had radically different regional aid t radit ions. Over t he period 1998-2000, t his result ed in fundament al policy reviews in most count ries and int ense negot iat ions bet ween Member St at es and DG Compet it ion. Count er-int uit ively, perhaps, given t he apparent ly very limit ed adapt at ion required, t he most difficult negot iat ions concerned German regional aid, wit h t he disput e culminat ing in Germany challenging t he Commission before t he European Court of Just ice.Against t his background, t his art icle provides a cross-count ry analysis and evaluat ion of adapt at ional pressures under t he 1998 regional aid guidelines. It cont ribut es t o t he Europeanizat ion lit erat ure by exploring t he means by which policy change can be measured and by invest igat ing whet her t he predict ive capacit y of ' goodness of fit ' can be improved.

Measuring and Comparing the Europeanization of National Legislation: A Research Note

“…Therefore, where a national policy has been rather parsimonious, the Europeanization effect of the same directive will be stronger than where there is a mature national policy that has grown over years. Yet, a recent study challenges the idea that one European measure means the same institutional constraints in all Member States altogether (Méndez et al. , 2008, p. 292).…”

“…, 2001; Bulmer and Radaelli, 2005, p. 347), but also on factors such as party politics or position and power of organized interests (for example, Falkner et al. , 2002; Menz, 2003) or the significance of a policy area for a Member State (Méndez et al. , 2008).…”

“…Just to take an example, national transport policies, as Plehwe shows, are influenced not only by European transport policy, but also by industrial policy, by environmental policy, by internal market and by competition policy (Plehwe, 2008). The field of finance services has strongly been influenced by European state aid policy (Grossman, 2006) as have regional aid policies (Méndez et al. , 2008), or more recently the local provision of formerly ‘public’ services.…”

“…This might be the case because Europeanization occurs in a broader political context and not by traceable legal acts (for example, the impact of the stability and growth pact on national budgets is beyond any doubt but cannot be identified in national budget laws, see Meyer, 2004) or because the Community disposes of far‐reaching competences including implementing powers of its own, such as in competition policy (Wilks, 2005). In both cases Europeanization cannot be ‘traced’ in national laws (see, for example, for state aid policy Méndez et al ,. 2008).…”

Reflexive Geographies of Europeanization

“…These numerous accounts are insightful and their contribution is valuable, yet we argue that their theoretical framings of Europeanization are predominantly concerned with testing hypotheses developed in the prior writings, such as goodness of fit, adaptational pressures and various facilitating factors (Boerzel and Risse 2003; Mendez et al. 2008).…”