Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EUDAIMONIA (National institutional autonomy within the EU legal order: uncovering and addressing its distinctive appearances, origins and impact on Member States' administrations)
Période du rapport: 2023-03-01 au 2024-08-31
The setup and design of administrative authorities has long remained the exclusive competence of the State. As a result, each State has relied on its own, highly diverse, administrative designs. Over the past two to three decades, however, European Union legislation increasingly started to impose more or less detailed institutional design obligations on Member States’ authorities. Against that background, the actual composition, decision-making procedures and judicial control over administrative decision-making have become increasingly ‘Europeanised’. The field of data protection law constitutes a prime example of this tendency.
Despite the increasing influence of European Union law on the organisation and design of State authorities, the scope and format of such influence has not received systematic attention across different policy fields. That is all the more remarkable since EU legislation has the potential significantly to reduce Member States’ institutional autonomy, a principle recognised by the Court of Justice of the European Union. In order better to understand the scope, limits and contours of that principle, it is therefore necessary to study and map the scope of EU legislative interventions in this field and to uncover the role EU law really plays in the design of administrative authorities.
This project identifies and compares the institutional design obligations imposed by EU legislation in 18 policy fields. That comparison allows better to frame the similarities and differences between different types of EU legislative intervention.
In addition to comparing legislation in place, the project also seeks to uncover whether EU law is indeed a (decisive) factor in the structuring or setup of national administrative authorities. To do so, it relies on and develops a qualitative research design grounded in Actor-Network Theory but tailored to the specifics of EU law. On the basis of case studies and questionnaires using that research design, the role of EU law can be contextualised in a broader and novel framework of understanding.
The results of the legal comparison and case studies/questionnaires will be used to determine the contours and limits of the principle of national institutional autonomy in the framework of administrative design and to formulate recommendations to EU and national legislators on how to proceed with future initiatives in this context.
Despite the increasing influence of European Union law on the organisation and design of State authorities, the scope and format of such influence has not received systematic attention across different policy fields. That is all the more remarkable since EU legislation has the potential significantly to reduce Member States’ institutional autonomy, a principle recognised by the Court of Justice of the European Union. In order better to understand the scope, limits and contours of that principle, it is therefore necessary to study and map the scope of EU legislative interventions in this field and to uncover the role EU law really plays in the design of administrative authorities.
This project identifies and compares the institutional design obligations imposed by EU legislation in 18 policy fields. That comparison allows better to frame the similarities and differences between different types of EU legislative intervention.
In addition to comparing legislation in place, the project also seeks to uncover whether EU law is indeed a (decisive) factor in the structuring or setup of national administrative authorities. To do so, it relies on and develops a qualitative research design grounded in Actor-Network Theory but tailored to the specifics of EU law. On the basis of case studies and questionnaires using that research design, the role of EU law can be contextualised in a broader and novel framework of understanding.
The results of the legal comparison and case studies/questionnaires will be used to determine the contours and limits of the principle of national institutional autonomy in the framework of administrative design and to formulate recommendations to EU and national legislators on how to proceed with future initiatives in this context.
In the first 30 months of the project, the team, composed of one postdoctoral researcher and three doctoral candidates has been able to map the disparate legislative references to Member States’ administrative authorities’ design in 18 policy fields where EU rules have been put in place. To that extent, the team delved into existing legislation and identified the presence or absence of institutional design obligations on the basis of the four comparative criteria outlined in the description for the action (legal form, composition, process and modus operandi).For each sector, tables have been published on the project’s website. At present, tables spanning all 18 sectors of the project are readily available on that website (see https://www.eulegalstudies.uliege.be/cms/c_8012264/en/eulegalstudies-eudaimonia(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) for a full overview).
On the basis of the research conducted to develop the tables, project researchers have been able to present their work in progress in different international venues, such as the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, the ARENA institute at the University of Oslo or the EUSA European Union Studies Association. Those presentations have been complemented by a series of working paper and article publications based on the research conducted in the framework of the project.
In addition, the project team and more particularly its postdoctoral researcher Dr. Julien Bois, constructed a research design framework based on, but also different from traditional Actor-Network Theory approaches. That framework is currently being relied on in the implementation of six case studies involving different members of the project doing fieldwork research in (up to) four Member States: France, Portugal, Poland and Romania. At present, case studies in the fields of railway liberalisation, competition law, medicinal products and health, water management, prudential supervision of banks are on-going. On the basis of the outcomes of those studies and the fieldwork done to complete them, questionnaires to be sent out to other Member States are currently being prepared.
Overall, the project researchers have actively taken part in events organised around Europe and have been able to have parts of their research presented or accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals or edited volumes. The principal investigator has started to draw horizontal conclusions from the different on-going work packages in anticipation to the final work package of the project.
On the basis of the research conducted to develop the tables, project researchers have been able to present their work in progress in different international venues, such as the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, the ARENA institute at the University of Oslo or the EUSA European Union Studies Association. Those presentations have been complemented by a series of working paper and article publications based on the research conducted in the framework of the project.
In addition, the project team and more particularly its postdoctoral researcher Dr. Julien Bois, constructed a research design framework based on, but also different from traditional Actor-Network Theory approaches. That framework is currently being relied on in the implementation of six case studies involving different members of the project doing fieldwork research in (up to) four Member States: France, Portugal, Poland and Romania. At present, case studies in the fields of railway liberalisation, competition law, medicinal products and health, water management, prudential supervision of banks are on-going. On the basis of the outcomes of those studies and the fieldwork done to complete them, questionnaires to be sent out to other Member States are currently being prepared.
Overall, the project researchers have actively taken part in events organised around Europe and have been able to have parts of their research presented or accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals or edited volumes. The principal investigator has started to draw horizontal conclusions from the different on-going work packages in anticipation to the final work package of the project.
In the first half of the lifetime, the project has progressed beyond the state of the art in two ways.
First, the comparative tables compiled in the context of WP1 of the project have moved the study of institutional design obligations significantly beyond the state of the art. The project has analysed and compared 18 fields of study that have not been compared to such an extent before. Although scholars had compared institutional obligations in competition law with related fields (such as digital services, telecommunications and even financial protection laws) on previous occasions, no comparison of this scale has been engaged in before. The comparative tables we have compiled and made accessible through our website contain a wealth of information in a format that allows for easier comparison and evaluation of similarities and differences between policy fields. Access to that information will also facilitate research on related topics (such as information exchanges, public consultation obligations) which do not as such form part of the EUDAIMONIA project. The tables therefore additionally also allow others to rely on our work to map and assess the similarities and differences between the 18 policy fields covered. Without the ERC funding obtained, this would not have been possible in such a short time. The tables therefore constitute fertile ground for future research within and beyond our project. On their basis, different papers are currently in progress, which are expected to be published as articles or book chapters by or before the end of the project.
Second, the development of a research design inspired by Actor-Network Theory (ANT) but tailored to the specificities of EU law has set the scene for research into a deeper understanding of the role of law in the setup of administrative structures. To our knowledge, prior to its working paper, no paper existed on the promises and pitfalls of ANT as a epistemiological framework to approach European Union law. The operationalisation and incorporation of ANT methods into a generalisable research design centred on EU law is currently tested in practice. It is expected that the different case studies taking place will allow to determine what role EU law has played in the setup of national administrative structures and in the way they operate. The results of the different case studies will form the object of an edited volume.
First, the comparative tables compiled in the context of WP1 of the project have moved the study of institutional design obligations significantly beyond the state of the art. The project has analysed and compared 18 fields of study that have not been compared to such an extent before. Although scholars had compared institutional obligations in competition law with related fields (such as digital services, telecommunications and even financial protection laws) on previous occasions, no comparison of this scale has been engaged in before. The comparative tables we have compiled and made accessible through our website contain a wealth of information in a format that allows for easier comparison and evaluation of similarities and differences between policy fields. Access to that information will also facilitate research on related topics (such as information exchanges, public consultation obligations) which do not as such form part of the EUDAIMONIA project. The tables therefore additionally also allow others to rely on our work to map and assess the similarities and differences between the 18 policy fields covered. Without the ERC funding obtained, this would not have been possible in such a short time. The tables therefore constitute fertile ground for future research within and beyond our project. On their basis, different papers are currently in progress, which are expected to be published as articles or book chapters by or before the end of the project.
Second, the development of a research design inspired by Actor-Network Theory (ANT) but tailored to the specificities of EU law has set the scene for research into a deeper understanding of the role of law in the setup of administrative structures. To our knowledge, prior to its working paper, no paper existed on the promises and pitfalls of ANT as a epistemiological framework to approach European Union law. The operationalisation and incorporation of ANT methods into a generalisable research design centred on EU law is currently tested in practice. It is expected that the different case studies taking place will allow to determine what role EU law has played in the setup of national administrative structures and in the way they operate. The results of the different case studies will form the object of an edited volume.