The issue of institutional capacity has received increased attention in the research on policy integration, bringing about the proliferation of conceptions aimed at capturing the linkage between crosssectoral aspects of policy designs and the specific attributes that governmental institutions and processes should possess in order to effectively formulate and implement integrated policies. This article contributes to reducing conceptual and analytical fragmentation in this field by elaborating on the different dimensions which compose the broadly defined 'institutional capacity' and outlining its link with policy integration. More specifically, our objective is threefold. First, we elaborate on the theoretical and conceptual accounts of institutional capacity with particular regard to integrated policy designs, suggesting an analytical framework that unpacks the different dimensions of institutional capacity through a range of empirical indicators. Second, we discuss the analytical, conceptual and empirical challenges that arise with the study of institutional capacities for policy integration, drawing also on the main findings provided by the contributions to the Thematic Issue. Third, we suggest some promising venues for future research and collect a number of policy-relevant recommendations on institutional capacity, policy integration and policy effectiveness.

Although policy integration research has been burgeoning over the past decade, numerous blank spots exist in our understanding of the rationale, the policy-making implications and implementation challenges of integrated policy designs. This study aims at improving our knowledge in this field by reflecting on the relevance of administrative capacities for the development and implementation of integrated policies. Based on an in-depth analysis of the implementation of European Union (EU) policies for sustainable urban development in two meso-level authorities (Scotland and Veneto), evidence is provided that both administrations have introduced a range of capacity-building provisions in order to enable the replacement of sectoral policies with a comprehensive integrated strategy. However, the specific policy and governance settings designed with the purpose of enhancing administrative capacities differed significantly between the two contexts, largely depending on public administrations' strategies and on the salience of EU policies in the respective political arenas.

This contribution discusses the two main asymmetries of European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) as they developed over the past two decades since the launch of the Single Currency. From the outset, EMU involved asymmetric degrees of integration in the area of 'economic' union (less centralised governance) versus 'monetary' union (more supranational governance). With the outbreak of the Sovereign Debt Crisis in 2010, the regime-shaping relevance of a second asymmetry emerged: one roughly between the member states of the Euro Area 'core' and those in the 'periphery'. Each of the two asymmetries have created a range of challengesinstitutional, policy and politicalthat undermine the stability and sustainability of the EMU project.

Over the last decade, a growing body of academic literature has reflected on how and under which conditions experiments in global climate governance lead to broader changes in rules, norms, and practices helping to meet the challenge of climate change. Drawing on the assumptions of the scholarship on experimentalist governance architectures, this article analyzes the effectiveness of the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) as a comprehensive governance framework that enables the development and coordination of local policies for sustainable energy and climate through a range of joint instruments for recursive goal setting, monitoring, and benchmarking. Our findings illustrate the CoM’s significant potential in terms of both general political uptake and policy output, which could make of this program, if appropriately fine-tuned, a successful governance experiment contributing to building a more effective global climate regime.

The core themes and research questions of this volume, centred on the nature of environmental policy change in the European Union (EU), are laid out. An original heuristic framework to capture different dimensions, mechanisms and processes of policy change is presented. In order to contextualise the current situation, where EU policy scope has reached maturity and faces an uncertain future trajectory, EU environmental politics is divided into particular eras, looking closely at the nature of change in each period. This volume interrogates the extent to which change has occurred, the conditions or context within which it did/did not take place and the implications arising from stasis or change. The contributions to the volume are introduced and placed into the context of the broader trajectory of EU environmental policy.

This contribution investigates how combinations of instruments, often called policy mixes, enhance policy learning processes at different levels. It analyzes the European Union’s (EU) Covenant of Mayors (CoM) that is underpinned by a set of learning instruments, to promote local action for sustainable energy and climate. The piece offers an original framework to explore whether and how the Covenant enhances learning at the level of European institutions and among local governments. Drawing on an extensive documentary review and elite interviews in four countries (Germany, Italy, Poland and the UK), the analysis shows that the CoM instrument mix has enhanced certain elements of learning within the actors leading the Covenant as well as many of the local governments within and outside the EU, but only if certain conditions operate, such as political leadership, individual motivation and knowledge and regional coordination mechanisms.

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The 2008 global financial crisis, climate change, and, ultimately, the COVID pandemic have once again challenged the European Union's (EU) capacity to find effective policy solutions to common problems. The article investigates how the novel policy narrative underpinning the European Green Deal (EGD), a new EU growth strategy aimed at transforming the EU into a fair and prosperous society with no net greenhouse gas emissions, has evolved into concrete policy commitments. By combining the theoretical insights of the narrative policy framework and the assumptions of constructivist approaches to the study of politics, we focus on the relevance of strategic narratives for the understanding of power dynamics related to the approval of the EGD' center piece—the European Climate Law. Our findings show how, by effectively using legitimacy arguments, the European Commission and the Parliament managed to secure a swift approval of the Regulation.