European Integration after Amsterdam: Institutional Dynamics and Prospects for Democracy

399 Pages·2000·21.58 MB·English

by  Karlheinz Neunreither

European Integration After Amsterdam:
Institutional Dynamics and Prospects for Democracy
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European Integration
After Amsterdam
Institutional Dynamics and Prospects
for Democracy
Edited by
KARLHEINZ NEUNREITHER
and
ANTJE WIENER
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Preface
This book is the product of a number of meetings held in Brussels, where most
of the participants had the opportunity to discuss their work not only with aca-
demic colleagues but also with practitioners from the institutions of the Euro-
pean Union. These meetings were organized by the Research Committee on
European Unification of the International Political Science Association (IPSA).
The editors gratefully acknowledge the financial and logistical support pro-
vided by the European Parliament and the European Commission.
Antje Wiener worked on the book while on a European Commission
Human Capital and Mobility Fellowship at the Sussex European Institute, Uni-
versity of Sussex, and then on a Jean Monnet Fellowship at the Robert Schuman
Centre of the European University Institute in Florence. She would like to
thank both institutions for generously funding work in beautiful surroundings,
and for colleagues and staff who provided stimulating discussions and wonder-
ful support.
Karlheinz Neunreither, as Chair of the aforementioned Committee, is happy
that, with the present volume, it has resumed its tradition of academic publi-
cation. While working on this project he, too, has benefited particularly from
exchanges of views with colleagues and practitioners, but also with his students
at the University of Heidelberg, where such subjects as the Amsterdam revi-
sion of the Treaties, institutional dynamics, and democratic theory and the
European Union were discussed extensively in graduate seminars.
Last, but by no means least, we would like to express deep respect and many
thanks to Fiona Hayes-Renshaw for providing outstandingly precise, profes-
sional and efficient advice while editing this volume. Further thanks are due
to Dominic Byatt of Oxford University Press for ongoing encouragement
throughout the production process.
K.N.
A.W
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Contents
List of Figures ix
List of Tables x
List of Abbreviations xi
List of Contributors xiii
1. Introduction: Amsterdam and Beyond
Antje Wiener and Karlheinz Neunreither 1
PART I: CHANGING INSTITUTIONS 13
2. The Amsterdam Treaty: The Blueprint for the Future
Institutional Balance?
Gerda Falkner and Michael Nentwich 15
3. The European Commission: A Balancing Act between
Autonomy and Dependence
Christian Lequesne 36
4. The Slow March of European Legislation: The
Implementation of Directives
Giuseppe Ciavarini Azzi 52
5. Beyond Amsterdam: Regional Integration as Social Process
Beate Kohler-Koch 68
PART II: PROSPECTS FOR DEMOCRACY 93
6. Executive Selection in the European Union: Does the
Commission President Investiture Procedure Reduce the
Democratic Deficit?
Simon Hix 95
7. Justifying Comitology: The Promise of Deliberation
JiirgenNeyer 112
8. Political Representation in the European Union: A
Common Whole, Various Wholes, or Just a Hole?
Karlheinz Neunreither 129
viii CONTENTS
PART III: FLEXIBILITY AND THE CHALLENGE OF
ENLARGEMENT 151
9. Negotiating Flexible Integration in the Amsterdam Treaty
Alexander C.-G. Stubb 153
10. Flexibility: A Tool of Integration or a Restraint on
Disintegration?
Helen Wallace 175
11. Abuses of Asymmetry: Privilege and Exclusion
Peter Leslie 192
12. East of Amsterdam: The Implications of the Amsterdam
Treaty for Eastern Enlargement
Ulrich Sedelmeier 218
PART IV: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON
CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE 239
13. Precedents and Present Events in the European Union: An
Institutional Perspective on Treaty Reform
Ulf Sverdrup 241
14. A Blairite Treaty: Neo-Liberalism and Regulated Capitalism in
the Treaty of Amsterdam
Mark A. Pollack 266
15. Constitutional Settlements and the Citizen after the Treaty
of Amsterdam
Jo Shaw 290
16. The Embedded Acquis Communautaire: Transmission Belt
and Prism of New Governance
Antje Wiener 318
References 343
Index 379
List of Figures
Fig. 4.1. The number of directives applicable at the end of each
year (1991-8) 53
Fig. 4.2. The average rate of transposition of directives at the
end of each year (1991-8) 54
Fig. 4.3. Breakdown by member state of the rate of
transposition of directives 55
Fig. 4.4. The number of pending infringement proceedings for
failure to notify the Commission of national
implementing measures 56
Fig. 4.5. The number of pending infringement proceedings for
non-conformity 57
Fig. 4.6. Infringement proceedings pending for incorrect application
of national measures implementing directives 58
Fig. 4.7. Directives as a percentage of letters of formal notice,
reasoned opinions, and referrals to the European
Court of Justice (EJC) in 1998 62
Fig. 4.8. Total Commission proposals (1990-8) 65
Fig. 5.1. Overall support for European integration (1973-94) 78
Fig. 5.2. National and regional variations in support of European
integration (1986-95) 82-3
Fig. 16.1. The embedded acquit communautaire 326