The external face of differentiated integration: third country participation in EU sectoral bodies

Abstract

Below the surface of its central decision-making bodies, the European integration process has developed a dense web of transgovernmental ties that reach out to foreign regulators. Insofar as the latter gain formal participation rights in European Union (EU) regulatory bodies, this results into an external form of differentiated integration. Focusing on EU regulatory agencies, this contribution shows that external differentiation follows predominantly sector-specific functionalist dynamics that are only loosely coupled to Union overarching foreign policy prerogatives. In sum, these patterns highlight centrifugal dynamics of technocratic networking beyond the political confines of the EU's regional integration project.

Thinking out of the Accession Box: The Potential and Limitations of Internal and External Differentiated Integration Between Turkey and the EU

“…21 External differentiated integration between the EU and non-Member States can be defined as third countries' various levels of alignment and/or intense familiarisation with particular sections of the EU's acquis communautaire without access to the EU's central decision-making bodies. 22 Lately, however, the EU's increasingly prominent sectoral transgovernmental bodies -EU agencies -incorporating both national and European technocratic circles and acting to some degree independently from central administrations, have also emerged as satisfactory platforms for the inclusion of non-Member States in decision-making and policy-implementation processes at differentiated levels. 23 Non EU-countries' various levels and forms of participation in the European integration process owing to shared issue-specific interests and high-level interdependence with the EU, culminate in external differentiated integration.…”

Avrupa Birliği’nin Üçüncü Ülkelerle Harici Farklılaştırılmış Entegrasyon Modelleri ve Türkiye-AB İlişkilerinin Geleceği: Neoliberal Bir Yaklaşım

“…de Smijter, 2001;Gstöhl, 2016;Lavenex, 2015). Bu çalışma, bu noktada literatüre katkıda bulunmayı hedeflemektedir.…”

“…As strategic partners are regarded as key regional/global actors and thus, are treated as equal partners by the EU, the strategic partnership models do not contain an explicit conditionality. However, strategic partners still partially align themselves with EU norms and standards by means of socialization processes (Hogenauer & Friedel, 2008, p. 267) and membership in the EU's various agencies (Lavenex, 2015).…”

EU Rules Beyond its Borders: The Policy‐specific Effects of Transgovernmental Networks and EU Agencies in the European Neighbourhood

“…In this transgovernmental co‐operation, conducted by the means of technocratic networks consisting of civil servants, EU agencies play an important role. They often operate as hubs of experts (Eberlein and Newman, 2008, p. 29; Lavenex, , p. 838). The role of the agencies in such networks is to facilitate capacity building and ensure the sharing of best practices with third countries' regulatory bodies.…”

“…The growing regulatory outreach of the EU is acknowledged in the literature examining the external governance of the EU (Lavenex, 2015;Lavenex and Schimmelfennig, 2009;Rimkutė and Shyrokykh, 2017;Shyrokykh, 2019). However, the impact of such EU engagement on the actual practices of neighbouring states remains under-researched.…”