This article presents some key research questions and discusses some advancements and controversies in the field of implementation studies in the European Union. In addition to calling for the further development of reliable quantitative indicators, the article suggests three issues worth...

Why and to what extent do states differ in their implementation of international norms? Furthermore, why and to what extent do states differ in their mode of resolving conflicts regarding non-implementation of international norms? In this article the empirical focus is on implementation of...

Case studies indicate that national governments may be partly split so that national (regulatory) agencies operate in a ‘double-hatted’ manner, serving both ministerial departments and the European Commission. Applying large-N questionnaire data this paper follows up these studies by...

This chapter analyses the processes and dynamics of institution building in the European Union (EU). While most studies of EU institution building have dealt with the birth and evolution of key institutions, such as the legislatives, the executives or the courts, the focus is here on a different...

Not all member states are equally eager or able to participate in all aspects of integration, and the impact of EU policy on the member states varies across states and policy sectors. Whereas much of the literature on differentiated integration has focused primarily on formal opt-outs, this...

This paper reports a comparative study of the Environmental Regulatory Agencies in Norway, Denmark and Finland. Increasingly and relatively independently these agencies are taking part in transnational networks in the EU involving the European Commission. A strong informal penetration, fuelled...

In May 2004 the European Union (EU) was enlarged to include ten new member states. In this article, I discuss how the EU enlargement affects the member states of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The empirical focus is the impact on the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA),...

The European Commission has over the past years intensified its efforts to develop alternative and non-legal instruments for improving implementation in the member states. One specific instrument is networked administrative structures with national regulatory agencies , aiming to harmonize and...