A Europeanization deficit? The impact of EU organic agriculture regulations on new member states

Abstract:

Member states' implementation of European Union regulations is often analysed in terms of 'implementation deficit' and 'transposition delay'. New member states have to transpose the acquis communautaire in formal terms, while implementation deficit is expected regarding policy impact on issues of ecological modernization, especially in the former socialist states. A comparison of the implementation of two regulations on organic agriculture in six old member states and five new member states accessing in 2004 shows this proposition to be invalid. Policy impacts show similar levels and parallel variations in both the old and the new member states. Variation in policy impact is explained by the level of conflict in the food sector and by the level of institutional change. The impact of the EU in member states thus depends on domestic institutional processes rather than on member states' ascribed position as more or less ecologically modernized.