Networks of Foundations as Norm Entrepreneurs: Between Politics and Policies in EU Decision-making

Abstract

International audienceThis article aims to contribute to bridging the gap between the analysis of networks in European politics and policy-making. Recently, the European Commission took significant steps towards the recognition of political party foundations at EU level. Firstly, it has agreed to recognize them as actors of European development policies. Secondly, it has launched a proposal leading to the creation of political foundations at EU level, linked to the European political parties. This article analyses the reasons, modalities and potential impact of this process, which signifies a breakthrough in comparison with the Commission’s previous attitude towards party affiliated organisations. For the foundations network-building turns out to have been a crucial means to attain legitimacy and access to the European institutions: firstly, through the mobilisation of political entrepreneurs in the European Parliament lobbying the Commission and Council representatives; and secondly, by linking the future role of non-state actors like political foundations to the reconsideration of the EU’s communication policy

Saving the dangerous idea: austerity think tank networks in the European Union

“…However, such a systematic study is difficult to undertake due to the significant number of think tanks in Europe. Nonetheless, the analysis, as presented in this article, of all European think tank networks around six European political party foundations (Dakowska, 2009) from left to right and of two further transnational partisan networks with particular relevance to the austerity debate is a first step into the right direction.…”

“…In response to the growing legitimacy concerns of the EU in the early 2000s, funding was provided to the parties in the European Parliament to set up 'European political party foundations' . Since European parties -which, in the European Parliament, are composed of the member state parties of the same party family -lack financial and organisational resources for long-term thinking, political party foundations were hoped to provide the right vehicle to leverage pro-European ideas and programmes from within the parties (Dakowska, 2009). Thus, since 2009, all European political parties with sufficient representation in the European Parliament have the right to establish a European political party foundation.…”

Relevance of German Political Foundations for Comparative Educational Research

“…The German political foundations appear as very specific in mediating cooperation between national parties and the European party federations in the EU. This line of argumentation is continued by focusing on the general influences of national political party foundations on the formation of European party federations, which are affiliated to the European Parliament (Dakowska, 2009). For instance, the Centre for European Studies is the transnational political foundation of the European People's Party or the Foundation for European Progressive Studies is aligned to the Party of European Socialists (Dakowska, 2009, p. 214).…”

“…In a research on eleven pan-European (as opposed to national) political foundations, which thematically overlaps with Dakowska (2009), the authors Gagatek and Van Hecke (2011) mention that these newcomers in the field of political foundations operate with comparatively low numbers of personnel and financial budgets if compared to the German model institutions which these authors find "exceptional in the amount of resources they possess" (p. 6). Brucker (2007) stresses the transnational agency of German political foundations in an article on the 'Orange Revolution' in Ukraine.…”

British Think-Tanks and Their Collaborative and Communicative Networks

“…Pautz, 2012a) and their influence on politics and policy has been often criticised as unaccountable and nontransparent (Biermann and Klönne, 2008; Blank, 2003; Denham and Garnett, 1999; Plehwe, 2010). Think-tanks have been credited for significantly influencing policy discourses (Bache and Reardon, 2013; Dakowska, 2009; Gagatek and van Hecke, 2011; Katwala, 2009; McKewon, 2012), but they have also been deemed responsible for the displacement of academic ‘public intellectuals’ by think-tank public intellectuals (Misztal, 2012) in policy discourses. Last but not least, the close relationship between think-tanks, business and interest groups has been repeatedly analysed and criticised (Baldwin, 2001a; Miller, 2010; Pollock et al, 2001; Ruane, 2010; the Guardian 2001; Waugh, 2000; also see the Think Tank Network Initiative, 2013).…”