Documents Hartlapp, Miriam 18 results

"Despite its central importance for the implementation of EU social policy, the issue of member state enforcement of European regulations has attracted little academic attention. This paper analyses changes in national enforcement systems and horizontal cooperation between them by comparing labour inspectorates in the EU-15 member states over time (2000 versus 2010). Starting from the assumption that, as administrations, enforcement systems are strongholds of national sovereignty, it is argued that member states' interest in creating a level playing field and in enabling free movement in accordance with the ‘four freedoms' should nevertheless bring about change. The results show insufficient enforcement capacity overall, but also that important changes have taken place regarding the coordination, steering and pressure capacity of national labour inspectorates, and also regarding cooperation amongst them. This points to the emergence of horizontal cooperation as a distinct feature of the European Administrative Space."

"Partant de l'approche du système politique d'Easton, nous considérons les élections européennes de 2004, 2009 et 2014 et la crise économique et financière comme des inputs du système politique de l'Union européenne (UE). Du côté des outputs, la politique sociale ne faisait pas partie des priorités de l'agenda politique de l'UE avant même la crise. Pour comprendre cette discordance entre inputs (les demandes sociales) et outputs (les résultats), nous examinons si et dans quelle mesure les inputs ont modifié les relations de pouvoir entre les principaux acteurs du système politique européen. Nous formulons la thèse selon laquelle si l'on pouvait s'attendre à ce que la crise fasse naître une demande de politiques sociales à l'échelle européenne, les acteurs favorables à un approfondissement de la construction économique et aux politiques d'austérité ont été confortés dans leur action par les résultats électoraux. Nous étayons notre thèse à l'aide de données empiriques originales."

"The European Commission is at the center of the European Union's political system. Within its five-year terms each Commission proposes up to 2000 binding legal acts and therefore crucially shapes EU policy, which in turn impacts on the daily lives of more than 500 million European citizens. However, despite the Commissions key role in setting the agenda for European decision making, little is known about its internal dynamics when preparing legislation. This book provides a problem-driven, theoretically-founded, and empirically rich treatment of the so far still understudied process of position-formation inside the European Commission. It reveals that various internal political positions prevail and that the role of power and conflict inside the European Commission is essential to understanding its policy proposals. Opening the 'black box' of the Commission, the book identifies three ideal types of internal position-formation. The Commission is motivated by technocratic problem-solving, by competence-seeking utility maximization or ideologically-motivated policyseeking. Specifying conditions that favor one logic over the others, the typology furthers understanding of how the EU system functions and provides novel explanations of EU policies with substantial societal implications. "

"This article provides a detailed study of how bureaucratic politics in the European Commission can systematically affect the substance of the legislative agenda that makes up European integration. Based on an encompassing description of the bureaucratic policy-formulation process within the Commission, it shows how the Commission's different elements play off against each other and thereby systematically advantage the lead department and the Secretariat-General. Empirical case studies from a sample of 48 policy formulation processes in the Commission during 1999–2008 illustrate how these structural advantages actually change the political substance of policy proposals. Against additional evidence on an uneven distribution of procedural advantages across the Commission departments, it concludes that bureaucratic politics in the Commission may account for systematic biases on the European Union's legislative agenda. "

"Les États-nations étant attachés à leurs prérogatives en matière de politiques relatives aux personnes âgées, on pourrait en déduire que ces politiques se prêtent peu à un traitement au niveau supranational. Pourtant, un certain nombre d'instruments communautaires influent directement ou indirectement sur les politiques nationales conduites dans ce domaine. Alors que la recherche en sciences politiques s'intéresse essentiellement à la méthode ouverte de coordination (MOC) sur les retraites, nous montrons que ces instruments sont en réalité plus anciens, plus larges et plus influents que la MOC. Nous nous plaçons dans une perspective d'analyse des politiques et posons les questions suivantes : quand et comment ces instruments ont-ils été élaborés ? Quels sont leurs effets (potentiels) ? Nous démontrons que l'on surestime en général la puissance des instruments de pilotage non contraignants qui visent à impulser des réformes dans le domaine des retraites tandis que l'on sous-estime souvent l'influence qu'exerce l'Union européenne sur la marge de manœuvre des États en matière de vieillissement et de retraite, à travers les instruments législatifs relatifs aux droits individuels à l'égalité de traitement ou à la liberté de mouvement des capitaux et des personnes. L'analyse fait appel à des études de cas portant sur différents instruments d'action et repose sur vingt-six entretiens et sur l'étude de sources primaires et secondaires."

"Whereas governments had previously designed early exit policies to unburden labour markets, they have come increasingly to regard them as problematic. We investigate the reasons for this policy reversal, focusing on two key actors: governments and trade unions. Our mixed-methods approach entails two major steps: first, we embed approaches to policy reform in a common framework to show the empirical relevance of the two major actors in most OECD countries. We find that both government ideology and union representativeness matter. In a second step, we investigate reform processes in two countries in more detail. Belgium and the Netherlands have much in common as regards government and interest groups but differ in terms of the reversal of early exit policies. We see that both the configuration of electoral and welfare state institutions have shaped the specific strategic environment of the two actors in both countries."

"The article provides a detailed analysis of the employment situation of older workers (55-
64 years) in the EU member states. Using European Labour Force Survey data we
systematically discuss the variation in the employment of older workers along the dimensions
of gender, sectoral distribution, type of employment, training and flexible work arrangements.
We show that and where Germany has to do some catching up if it wants to create a
favourable employment context for this age group. Highlighting country differences we draw
the conclusions that this labour market challenge can be characterised to a large extent as a
gender problem, that labour market policy for an ageing workforce must start much earlier
than just with older people and that their employment situation can to a great extent be sought
in the general economic parameters and especially in the degree of employment growth in the
service sector."