In an attempt to strengthen the legitimacy of European Union (EU) policy-making, the 2009 Lisbon Treaty strengthened the principle of parliamentary control in EU affairs. This pertains to parliaments at all levels ranging from the regional to the supranational level. This book analyses the potential of regional parliaments – the parliaments closest to the citizens – to engage in EU affairs and to fill the perceived legitimacy gap. Eight member states have a total of 73 regional parliaments with legislative powers, and there are further trends towards decentralization in Europe. On its quest to understand the role that regional parliaments can plan in the EU multi-level parliamentary system, the book addresses key questions: What are the formal powers and functions of regional parliaments in EU policy-making? How do they use their powers in practice? How active are they in EU politics, and what do they try to achieve? What factors can explain their degree of (in-)activity? The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of The Journal of Legislative Studies.

This book explores the role and status of local and regional authorities (also referred to as 'subnational authorities' or 'SNAs') in European Union law, and reveals the existence of two parallel yet opposed constitutional imaginations of the supranational legal order. Through a survey of various areas of EU law, including primary and secondary legislation, case law as well as various soft law instruments, Finck introduces two narratives. These are the 'outsider narrative' and the 'insider narrative' that frame these constitutional imaginations. According to the outsider narrative, the structure of the legal order is bi-centric, composed of the member states and the EU only. This narrative envisages SNAs as outsiders of EU law, whose interactions with Union law are merely of an indirect nature. However, in addition to this well-known account of EU law, a parallel yet distinct narrative can be identified according to which SNAs are insiders that entertain direct relations with the European Union and contribute to the substantive development of EU law. It is illustrated that the coexistence of both narratives has wider implications as it points towards a shift in the structure of the European legal order itself, which is transitioning from bi-centricity to polycentricity.

The European Union, as a regulatory polity based on integration through law, arguably relies more on legal compliance with its policies than any other political system. Proceeding from this point of departure, this book puts the spotlight on the subnational tier and scrutinizes its role in ensuring compliance. Drawing on a dataset of infringement proceedings against federal and regionalized member states, the book shows that strong shared rule, i.e., strong cooperation between national and subnational authorities, can improve national compliance records. In contrast, policy sectors with strong redistributive consequences impair subnational authorities’ capacity to comply. In short, policy and politics matter more than polity.

A fresh alternative to traditional state-centred analyses of the process of European integration is presented in this book. World-renowned scholars analyze the state in terms of its component parts and clearly show the interaction of subnational, national and supranational actors in the emerging European polity. This `multi-level politics′ approach offers a powerful lens through which to view the future course of European integration. The contributors′ empirical exploration of areas such as regional governance, social policy and social movements underpins their broad conceptual and theoretical framework providing significant new insight into European politics.

European politics has been reshaped in recent decades by a dual process of centralization and decentralization. At the same time that authority in many policy areas has shifted to the suprantional level of the European Union, so national governments have given subnational regions within countries more say over the lives of their citizens. At the forefront of scholars who characterize this dual process as Omulti-level governance,OLiesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks argue that its emergence in the second half of the twentieth century is a watershed in the political development of Europe. Hooghe and Marks explain why multi-level governance has taken place and how it shapes conflict in national and European political arenas. Drawing on a rich body of original research, the book is at the same time written in a clear and accessible style for undergraduates and non-experts.

This book considers the ways in which public administration (PA) has been studied in Europe over the last forty years, and examines in particular the contribution of EGPA, the European Group for Public Administration, both to the growth of a truly pan-European PA, and to the future of PA in Europe. The book provides a lively reflection on the state of the art of PA both over the past forty years and over the next forty years. It reflects on the consolidation and institutionalisation of EGPA as the European community for the study of PA in Europe, and demonstrates the need for such a regional group for PA in Europe, as well as for regional groups for the study of PA in other parts of the world. The book also demonstrates the functional, cultural and institutional reasons that underpin the significance of a regional group for researching and studying PA at an ‘intermediate level of governance’ between the national and the global levels. The book provides rich insights about the state of the art of PA in Europe from the leading public administration scholars.

This book is a unique contribution to the understanding of the reality of government and governance in the European Union.