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Conditionality and Compliance in the EU's Eastward Enlargement: Regional Policy and the Reform of Sub‐national Government

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  • James Hughes
  • Gwendolyn Sasse
  • Claire Gordon

Abstract

Studies of EU conditionality assume one basic premise: that it exists and works because there is a power asymmetry which enables the Commission to impose the adoption of the acquis on the CEECs as a precondition of their entry to the Union. Thus this literature posits that there are clear causal relationships in the use of conditionality to ensure policy or institutional outcomes. Existing studies of enlargement conditionality analyse its correlation with macro‐level democratization and marketization. This article, however, takes a policy‐tracking approach to analyse how conditionality was actually put into operation in policy‐making and institution‐building in the fields of regional policy and regionalization in the CEECs. The research draws on interviews conducted with officials in the Commission and in CEEC delegations in Brussels to illustrate the views of key actors, and to examine the interactions between the Commission and the candidate countries. By studying the policy process, the article demonstrates the fluid nature of conditionality, the inconsistencies in its application by the Commission over time, and the weakness of a clear‐cut causal relationship between conditionality and outcome in this policy area. By charting the changes in the Commission's approach over time, and illustrating the diverse responses of the CEECs, this study confirms the need for a more nuanced approach to the concept of EU conditionality, and argues for a logic of differentiation in the study of its impact on the CEECs.

Suggested Citation

  • James Hughes & Gwendolyn Sasse & Claire Gordon, 2004. "Conditionality and Compliance in the EU's Eastward Enlargement: Regional Policy and the Reform of Sub‐national Government," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 523-551, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:42:y:2004:i:3:p:523-551
    DOI: 10.1111/j.0021-9886.2004.00517.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kohler-Koch, Beate, 2002. "European Networks and Ideas: Changing National Policies?," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 6, April.
    2. Fritz Breuss, 2001. "Makroökonomische Auswirkungen der EU-Erweiterung auf alte und neue Mitglieder," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 74(11), pages 655-666, November.
    3. Fritz Breuss, 2001. "Macroeconomic Effects of EU Enlargement for Old and New Members," WIFO Working Papers 143, WIFO.
    4. Michal Illner, 2002. "MMultilevel Government in Three East Central European Candidate Countries and Its Reforms after 1989," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 7, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
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    2. Moreno Enguix , María del Rocío & Antón Renart , Marcos & Vidal Hernández-Mora, José Antonio, 2012. "European regional policy: Analysis of the management reports of structural funds 2000-2006," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 22, pages 35-56.
    3. Renart, Marcos Antón & Enguix, Ma del Rocio Moreno & Hernández-Mora, José Antonio Vidal, 2008. "Errors and weaknesses detected by the European Court of Auditors in the reports on the European Structural Funds 2000–2004," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 148-161.
    4. Blavoukos, Spyros & Pagoulatos, George, 2008. "Fiscal adjustment in Southern Europe: the limits of EMU conditionality," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 5607, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Dimitris Papadimitriou & Eli Gateva, 2009. "Between Enlargement-led Europeanisation and Balkan Exceptionalism: an appraisal of Bulgaria’s and Romania’s entry into the European Union," GreeSE – Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe 25, Hellenic Observatory, LSE.
    6. Spyros Blavoukos & George Pagoulatos, 2008. "Fiscal Adjustment in Southern Europe: the Limits of EMU Conditionality," GreeSE – Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe 12, Hellenic Observatory, LSE.

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