Real-world Europeanisation: the silent turning of small gears^*

* This work draws extensively on previous work by Morten Jarlbæk Pedersen and Simon Pasquali.

ABSTRACT

Several studies of the impacts of the EU on modern policies and polities evade investigation of the most detailed level of Europeanisation, that is, gradual legal changes. This seems odd as it is exactly these small gears turning that constitute perhaps the most real and concrete of all types of Europeanisation. This paper looks at a range of cash benefits in Denmark. Applying a novel framework of silent versus loud Europeanisation, it investigates how legal changes since 1972 came into being by digging into both the legal details and the preparatory and parliamentary work. The conclusion is that Denmark – often mentioned as an archetype universalist welfare state at odds with the European logics of free movement and non-discrimination – has indeed altered the very nature of its most universalist cash benefits, but these changes have been very gradual and have often not even been recognised as Europeanisation.

KEYWORDS:

• Europeanisation
• EU
• social policy
• welfare states
• Historical Institutionalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Morten Jarlbæk Pedersen is a PhD student at the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen. His work centres on the cross-field between law and political science inter alia focusing on Europeanisation and regulation.

Notes

* This work draws extensively on previous work by Morten Jarlbæk Pedersen and Simon Pasquali.

1. It is important to stress that top-down and bottom-up here are distinctions between sources of change at the national level, not general distinctions between the national and European level.

2. The use of delegation in Denmark has special traits to it, as it is rarely directed towards an independent agency – these hardly exist in Denmark. Instead, powers are delegated directly to ministers. The coveted depolitisation when delegating thus cannot be obtained (Pedersen, Ravn, and Christensen 2016). One might therefore suspect that silent Europeanisation is not necessarily caused by the technical nature of the changes but can be due to the political strategy. However, the analytical framework here cannot tell that unequivocally. The strategy of silence is a point made by, for instance, Caune, Jacquot, and Palier (2011) regarding France.

3. Calculations based on Statistics Denmark’s StatBank tables FOLK3 and INDKP4, see www.statistikbanken.dk.

4. These and several other documents from before the digital age have been accessed via the Folketinget’s library (parliament’s library) during late 2010 and early 2011.

5. In fact, just one contribution from outside the parliamentarian system came as four clerical organisations wrote a letter to the minister expressing certain worries about the situation of Danish missionaries and relief workers abroad. Their worries were superfluous, however, as the proposal already had certain exceptions from the 40-year-rule meeting their concerns (Folketinget 1972b, § 1, 1972d).

6. See, for example, case C-542/09 European Commission v. Kingdom of the Netherlands [2012] ECLI:EU:C:2012:346 and the combined cases C-523/11 Laurence Prinz v. Region Hannover and C-585/11 Philipp Seeberger v. Studentenwerk Heidelberg [2013] ECLI:EU:C:2013:524. These cases relate to student allowances, and are examples of overrulings of residency requirements in the Netherlands and Germany, respectively. Nothing in these judgements, however, prevent the ECJ from using them as precedence in cases regarding other social benefits.

7. From 1849 and onwards, this loss of the right to vote was a constitutional arrangement (Christensen 2004, 94; Danmarks Riges Grundlov 1849, § 35).

8. The first judgement to point to in this direction was C-1/72 Rita Frilli v. Belgian State [1972] ECR-I-457. This was followed by judgements in Hoeckx and Scrivner both on making EC law relevant to social assistance benefits, see cases C-249/83 Vera Hoeckx v. Openbaar Centrum voor Maatschappelijk Welzijn, Kalmthout [1985] ECR I-973 and C-122/84 Kenneth Scrivner & Carol Cole v. Centre public d’aide sociale de Chastre [1985] ECR I-1027.

9. See, for example, case C-139/85 R.H. Kempf v. Staatssecretaris van Justitie [1986] ECR I-1741.