The national coordination of EU policy: organisational efficiency and European outcomes

Abstract:

The conventional wisdom of scholars in the field of policy coordination is that efficiency at the domestic coordination process is a prerequisite for effectiveness at the EU level. This article challenges this assumption by examining the conduct of EU policy in Belgium and Germany. By taking several EU directives as case studies, the article first evaluates the Belgian and German coordination systems at the domestic and EU levels and then examines the extent to which these states achieved their policy objectives at the EU level on the particular directives. It indicates that the inherent difficulties and inefficiencies in the coordination systems of the two states had no effect on their ability to achieve their policy objectives at the EU level. In fact, it was other non-organisational factors that determined the extent to which the two states were successful or not at the EU level.