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ABSTRACT
Europeanization literature has found that, in general, subnational authorities prefer to target the EU indirectly via member state channels. This article tests whether these findings hold in the non-legislative domain of the European Semester. With respect to the Belgian case, the article concludes that all Belgian subnational authorities indeed primarily use the cooperative intra-state channels as a response to the domestic division of competences and the EU decision-making procedures. It also finds that in addition especially Flanders invests substantially in extra-state strategies towards EU institutions. The article concludes that stronger time constraints, lower compliance pressure and the more politically salient issues of the European Semester trigger the most prosperous and identity prone region to adopt additional extra-state channels on top of the dominant intra-state channels.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Documents at the SNA level include the Flemish Reform Programme, notes and policy papers of the Government of Flanders, official letters to European institutions) and coordinated internal documents (such as amendments to the draft Country Report and the draft CSRs, input for the NRP and FFMs). From the national level we used governmental documents (the NRP, notes of the Concertation Committee), and coordinated Belgian internal documents (FFM, bilateral meetings, amendments to the draft Country Report and the draft CSRs). EU level sources include official ES documents and internal documents (such as draft Country Reports, guidelines for NRPs).
2 De Blauwer is chairman of the administrative working group ES within the Flemish administration. He also works as the ES attaché at the General Representation of the Government of Flanders within the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the EU. He is a member of the Drafting Committee in charge of the NRP and coordinates the preparation of the Flemish amendments to the Country Report and the CSRs as well as the Flemish input for the FFMs and the bilateral meetings between the Commission and Belgium. He participates in meetings at Flemish level (at political and administrative level), and in interfederal meetings (at political and administrative level).
3 The ES documents of the European Commission can be consulted at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/economic-and-fiscal-policy-coordination/eu-economic-governance-monitoring-prevention-correction/european-semester_en).
4 Accord de Gouvernement / Regeerakkoord (October 9, 2014), http://www.premier.be/sites/default/files/articles/Accord_de_Gouvernement_-_Regeerakkoord.pdf
5 http://www.wallonie.be/sites/wallonie/files/publications/dpr_2014-2019.pdf, http://be.brussels/files-nl/over-het-gewest/de-gewestelijke-bevoegdheden/regeerverklaring-2014-2019, https://www.vlaanderen.be/en/publications/detail/government-of-flanders-2014-2019-coalition-agreement.
8 Additional examples are the Cooperation Protocol for the installation of an Interministerial Conference of the Ministers of Education of the three Communities, the intra Belgian consultation to put industrial policy on the European agenda and Belgian position paper aimed at modifying the flexibility clause for investments under the SGP.
10 http://www.be2020.eu/uploaded/files/201805041043430.NRP_2018_Belgium.pdf
It is important to note that the Walloon Region (http://economie.wallonie.be/content/la-belgique-d%C3%A9pos%C3%A9-son-programme-national-de-r%C3%A9forme-2018) and the Brussels Capital Region (http://be.brussels/files-nl/over-het-gewest/regering/vergadering-van-de-ministerraad-van-19-april-2018) describes their input to the NRP as ‘contributions’ in contrast to Flanders that is using the term ‘Flemish Reform Programme’.
11 The Services of the Commission also refer in the Country Report 2017 to political and technical elements, but they stated: “However, the obstacles appear to be rather political than technical.” https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/2017-european-semester-country-report-belgium-en.pdf, p. 17
12 Although the drafting of the SP is always lagging behind the drafting of the NRP, both programmes are always submitted to the Commission at the same time (end of April).
15 Regeerakkoord van de Vlaamse Regering 2014–2019, https://www.vlaanderen.be/en/publications/detail/government-of-flanders-2014-2019-coalition-agreement.
17 https://www.vlaanderen.be/en/publications/detail/government-of-flanders-2014-2019-coalition-agreement, pag. 184.
22 See e.g. the phrase (consideration 13, page 4) in the proposals for CSRs of Belgium 2018–2019 “At regional level, only Flanders is planning to introduce a spending review approach in its budgetary process.” https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/file_import/2018-european-semester-country-specific-recommendation-commission-recommendation-belgium-en.pdf
24 The chairman of the Flemish Parliament repeated that message during the visit of the president of the Commission to the Flemish Parliament in May 2018 https://www.vlaamsparlement.be/plenaire-vergaderingen/1252855/verslag/1254223
25 See DBP 2018, in particular pp. 19-31 and 34-37 https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/economy-finance/2018_dbp_be_fr.pdf
26 See SP 2018–2021, in particular pp. 26-35 https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/2018-european-semester-stability-programme-belgium-fr.pdf