The Impact of Expansion on European Union Institutions : The Eastern Touch on Brussels

How does policy-making trigger the institutionalization of steering capacities? This book investigates this question by tackling why the European Commission expanded competences that were intentionally limited to the specific pre-accession context prior the 2004/07 EU enlargement. Five cases studies trace the policy development from before to after enlargement. Based on a two-level functional explanation that links neo-functional and the arena of powers approaches, the author shows that member states tolerate far-reaching capacity expansions, but intervene actively if policies are expected to entail political clout that threatens to strengthen direct political relationships between the EU-level and citizens Front Matter....Pages i-xv Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Research Question and Empirical Puzzle....Pages 3-18 Front Matter....Pages 19-19 Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Policy-Generated Institutionalization....Pages 21-52 The Analytical Framework: Design of the Empirical Study....Pages 53-55 Front Matter....Pages 57-60 Institutional Capacity Building: Extending Conditional Distributive Instruments....Pages 61-80 The Respect for and Protection of Minorities: Exploiting Legal Grey Areas and Patronage Policies....Pages 81-101 Cross-Border Cooperation: Executing Intergovernmental Competences....Pages 103-119 Nuclear Safety: Resisting Unintended Consequences....Pages 121-138 Anticorruption: Outsourcing Responsibility....Pages 139-156 Front Matter....Pages 157-157 Comparative Summary and Empirical Results....Pages 159-174 Conclusion: Policy-Generated Institutionalization....Pages 175-178 Back Matter....Pages 179-223