Domestic Agencies in an Emergent European Executive Order

This article poses the following question: who is in control of domestic agencies when they are handling domestic 'EU affairs' broadly speaking? The article demonstrates that domestic agencies are primarily steered by their parent ministry, being largely 'single-hatted'. This observation does not render 'double-hatted' agencies implausible — as for example when domestic agencies practise EU legislation — generating a compound European executive order. The empirical analysis benefits from a large-N elite survey among 1452 domestic agency officials. This article contests claims that the 'agencification' of domestic government systems as well as their involvement in an emergent European Executive Order profoundly weakens the state qua government hierarchy. Finally, the article shows that the steering role played by domestic ministries and the European Commission is conditioned by domestic administrative structures, notably by the vertical and horizontal specialisation of domestic agencies as well as organisational duplication between agencies and their parent ministry.