Multi-level governance in the European Union

Type :

Presentation

Pages :

5 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

01/09/2009

Category :

Political science

Sub category :

European union

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Summary :

Assessing the claim that the EU represents a move from state-centric to multi-level governance.
1. The complexity of the EU polity.
2. Models focusing on the relationship between supranational, national and subnational institutions.
3. The relevance of the multi-level and state-centric models.
A Europe of the regions?
1. European integration and the multi-level governance model.
2. The development of a European regional policy.
3. Reform of the structural funds.
4. An unprecedented mobilization of subnational actors at the European level.
The European Union as a polity creating process.
1. The state-centric model of governance.
2. The shift in power from national to European level.
Conclusion.

Abstract

The former French President of the european Commission, Jacques Delors, once stated that the european union was an "unidentified political object". This phrase highlights the complexity of the EU polity, which various theories have tried to capture and which has sparked controversy among the students of european integration. Among those theories, two models emerged between the late eighties and the early nineties, focusing on the relationship between supranational, national and subnational institutions, drawing opposite conclusions on the role of these actors in EU policy making. The term "multi-level governance" was coined by authors such as Gary Marks and Liesbet Hooghe, to describe european integration as "a polity creating process in which authority and policy-making influence are shared across multiple levels of government - subnational, national and supranational". This model points at the dilution of national sovereignty and at the autonomous role of the european Parliament, the european Commission, and the european Court of Justice.