Real-world Europeanisation: the silent turning of small gears^*

Abstract

Several studies of the impacts of the EU on modern policies and polities evade investigation of the most detailed level of Europeanisation, that is, gradual legal changes. This seems odd as it is exactly these small gears turning that constitute perhaps the most real and concrete of all types of Europeanisation. This paper looks at a range of cash benefits in Denmark. Applying a novel framework of silent versus loud Europeanisation, it investigates how legal changes since 1972 came into being by digging into both the legal details and the preparatory and parliamentary work. The conclusion is that Denmark -often mentioned as an archetype universalist welfare state at odds with the European logics of free movement and non-discrimination -has indeed altered the very nature of its most universalist cash benefits, but these changes have been very gradual and have often not even been recognised as Europeanisation. ARTICLE HISTORY

Europeanization in reverse gear?

“…It can also be silent, under the radar so to speak or, according to Majone (2005), 'by stealth'. To illustrate: for a long time, Denmark adapted to the EU by making several legal changes to its universalistic cash benefits, and gradually this turning of small legal gears has altered the Danish welfare system, but without spawning a political debate or open contestation (Pedersen 2017).…”