Europeanization? (No) Thank You! Explaining Domestic Response to EU Regional State Aid Regulations

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of how the governments of Norway and Italy reacted when the Commission, citing EU regional state aid regulations, banned the use of social security tax subsidies in northern Norway and southern Italy, and how these governments chose to meet EU-level pressure. This is a salient issue, as EU state aid policy is a case of coercive Europeanization with potential redistributive effects nationally. The two countries reacted differently, and apparently contrary to expectations based on misfit or cultures of compliance. In order to understand what happened, we must study the actors in power, their preferences and their room for manoeuvre. Do they want change? Can they implement change? Or, if they do not want change: can they avoid it?

Keywords:

• State aid policy
• Europeanization
• regional policy
• Italy
• Norway

Acknowledgements

For comments and input on various versions of this article, I would like to thank Ulf Lindstrøm, the journal referees and participants of the Norwegian and Nordic political science conferences in 2008. All the usual reservations apply.