Special Issue: The Politics of Conflict Management in EU Regulation

Abstract: The introductory article examines how the conflicts latent in EU regulation are managed. First, it looks at how policy issues are framed as positive-sum games, party-political arenas avoided and consensual problem-solving methods of policy-making promoted. Then it addresses the puzzle of the robustness of regulatory conflict management. If challenged in its regulatory endeavour, the EU tends to respond with more regulation. Finally, the article outlines the limitations of regulatory conflict management which are to be found less in outright deadlock than in attenuation of processes, loss of focus, information overload and a tendency to solve small problems while neglecting large ones.

Contents:
The Politics of Conflict Management in EU Regulation -Deborah Mabbett and Waltraud Schelkle
Of ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Subsidies: European State Aid Control through Soft and Hard Law - Michael Blauberger
Bringing Regulatory Processes Back In: The Reform of EU Antitrust and Merger Control - Hussein Kassim and Kathryn Wright
The Regulation of Redistribution: Managing Conflict in Corporate Tax Competition - Achim Kemmerling and Eric Seils
Supplementary Pensions between Social Policy and Social Regulation - Deborah Mabbett
Conflict and Conflict Management in the Cross-border Provision of Healthcare Services - Dorte Sindbjerg Martinsen
The Open Method of Coordination on Pensions: Does it De-politicise Pensions Policy? - David Natali
The Contentious Creation of the Regulatory State in Fiscal Surveillance - Waltraud Schelkle
When Efficiency Results in Redistribution: The Conflict over the Single Services Market - Susanne K. Schmidt