1st Edition

Adapting to European Integration Small States and the European Union

By Kenneth Hanf, Ben Soetendorp Copyright 1998
    218 Pages
    by Routledge

    218 Pages
    by Routledge

    Adapting to European Integration describes how the political institutions in eight small member states and two non-members responded to the internal and external demands springing from the process of European integration in general and EC/EU membership in particular. The study makes a distinction between governmental/administrative adaptation, political adaptation and strategic adaptation. The chapters focus, in the first instance, on the governmental/administrative responses at the level of central government, the organisational adjustments and the changes in institutional capacity to meet the new challenges. The authors also look at the willingness of the political decision-makers to internalise the EC/EU dimension in domestic policy making and the way in which the country's own history as well as the attitude towards European integration facilitate or hinder adaptation and change.

    1. Table of Contents
    2. Small States and the Europeanisation of Public Policy
    3. Belgium: The Dilemma Between Cohesion and Autonomy
    4. The Netherlands
    5. Denmark: The Testing of a Hesitant Membership
    6. Ireland: The Rewards of Pragmatism
    7. Greece: Competing Regional Priorities
    8. Spain: Modernisation Through Integration
    9. Austria: Adaptation Through Anticipation
    10. Sweden: The State Joins the European Union
    11. Norway: An Adaptive Non-Member
    12. Switzerland: Adjustment Despite Deadlock
    13. Conclusions: The Nature of National Adaptation to European Integration

    Biography

    Hanf, Kenneth; Soetendorp, Ben