The Europeanisation of Development Policy

Despite the growing academic interest in the development policy of the European Union (EU) and the booming literature on Europeanisation, the impact of Europe on national development policies has largely been overlooked. By exploring Member State interactions with and through the EU level across a number of different issues, this volume looks to herald a new research agenda.

The picture emerging from the empirical evidence is that of modest degrees of Europeanisation. Resistance to Europe can be attributed to different factors, some operating at the domestic level (e.g. established cultural and normative structures, different types of veto players) and others related to the existence of several groupings with alternative policy prescriptions (e.g. Nordic donors, like-minded countries, former colonial powers). Even where there are signs of convergence (or divergence) between the development policies of the various Member States, they may be due to other influences rather than pressures coming from the EU. This book was originally published as a special issue of European Politics and Society.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Europeanisation of development policy by Jan Orbie and Maurizio Carbone

1. Europeanisation through the prism of regime complexity: the case of French aid by Gordon D. Cumming

2. An end to Nordic exceptionalism? Europeanisation and Nordic development policies by Ole Elgström and Sarah Delputte

3. Italy’s development policy and the domestic politics of Europeanisation: why Europe matters so little by Maurizio Carbone and Lia Quartapelle

4. Europeanisation should meet international constructivism: the Nordic Plus group and the internalisation of political conditionality by France and the United Kingdom by Damiano de Felice

5. Europeanisation of aid budgets: nothing is as it seems by Sarah Delputte, Steven Lannoo, Jan Orbie and Joren Verschaeve

6. The Europeanisation of budget support: do government capacity and autonomy matter? by Svea Koch and Nadia Molenaers

7. Europeanisation and the EU’s comprehensive approach to crisis management in Africa by Mark Furness and Gorm Rye Olsen

8. Europeanisation in Aid for Trade: the impact of capacity and socialisation by Samuel Brazys and Simon Lightfoot

Conclusions: Europeanisation, globalisation or (re)nationalisation? Revisiting development policy in the European Union by Michael Smith