Why EU asylum standards exceed the lowest common denominator: the role of regulatory expertise in EU decision-making

ABSTRACT

While scholars traditionally expected EU policy-making in the area of asylum to produce lowest common denominator standards, recent studies on the first phase of the Common European Asylum System have observed higher asylum standards in some instances. This article aims at explaining this divergence. Drawing on concepts of regulatory expertise and ‘misfit’, it argues that the observed variation in policy output can be explained by the dominance of a few (Northern) member states which were highly successful in inserting their positions in the core EU directives. Government effectiveness and exposure to the phenomenon entailing regulatory expertise provide a powerful explanation for member states being effective policy-shapers. Characterized by low levels of government effectiveness and exposure in the asylum area, Southern European countries were, on the contrary, rather passive during the negotiations and barely left any mark on the EU directives.

KEY WORDS:

• Asylum
• decision-making
• European Union
• expertise
• regulatory competition

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research has been funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and was conducted at the Collaborative Research Centre 597 (Bremen University). The author would like to thank Ulrike Liebert, Steffen Mau, Rainer Bauböck, Ariadna Ripoll Servent, Henning Deters, Christof Roos and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. The author would also like to thank her interviewees for sharing their insights.

Notes

1 The theoretical model I draw on has used the terms ‘high’ and ‘low’ regulators. I have opted for the terms ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ regulators to account for the fact that high regulators in asylum policies should not be confounded with high-standard countries.

2 I use the terms ‘high standards’ and ‘low standards’ as relational measures, comparing member states longitudinally and cross-sectionally. I use the terms high standard/liberal and low standard/restrictive interchangeably.

3 Government effectiveness is considered an important factor for negotiation success (Panke 2011: 50) and for effective implementation (Börzel et al. 2010: 7–8). This misses the dimension of the specific policy area, referred to by Börzel when suggesting that early industrialization is a determinant for being a strong regulator in environmental policies (2002: 196–7).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Natascha Zaun

Biographical notes

Natascha Zaun is a lecturer at Mainz University and a fellow at the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences.