Compliance Promotion in the European Union

Compliance Promotion in the European Union offers a comprehensive and theory-driven analysis of policy implementation and compliance in the EU, addressing long-standing debates about how to close the gap between EU law on the books and the law in action. It starts out by providing an empirical diagnosis and conceptual synthesis of EU implementation research, a field marked by fragmented outlets, competing theoretical approaches, and methodological pluralism. By systematically reviewing and integrating quantitative and qualitative scholarship, the book clarifies why assessments of EU implementation and compliance have diverged so sharply and why cumulative knowledge has remained limited. In doing so, it guides readers through decades of scattered research and develops a more coherent understanding of the nature, causes, and evolution of the EU's implementation deficit. Based on this first diagnostic part, the book then maps and assesses the EU's compliance promotion architecture. It develops a multi-arena, multi-paradigm theoretical framework that brings together managerial, constructivist, and rationalist approaches to compliance promotion, and it analyses how these strategies interact through an extended escalation model operating in vertical, horizontal, and domestic arenas. Building on this framework, the book evaluates the EU's actual compliance promotion architecture, assessing the effectiveness, conditions, and interrelations of its instruments. Moving beyond a narrow focus on failure, it highlights what works in practice and why. The analysis culminates in practical policy recommendations and a forward-looking research agenda aimed at fostering more cumulative and policy-relevant scholarship on EU implementation and compliance.

Ellen Mastenbroek is Professor of European Public Policy at the Department of Public Administration at Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Her main research interests are the Europeanization of national governments and parliaments, EU implementation and compliance, ex-post evaluation of EU legislation, and European administrative networks. She has published various articles on these topics, in journals such as Public Administration, Regulation and Governance, Journal of Common Market Studies, and Journal of European Public Policy. Oliver Treib is Professor of Comparative Policy Analysis and Research Methods at the University of Münster. His research revolves around the logic of policy making and the transformation of political conflict structures in the European multi-level system. His publications include five monographs and more than twenty-five articles in peer-reviewed journals like British Journal of Political Science, European Journal of Political Research, Journal of European Public Policy, European Union Politics, and West European Politics. Esther Versluis is Professor of European Regulatory Governance at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University, The Netherlands. Her main research interests are EU implementation and compliance, EU agencies and networks, and the regulation of uncertainty. She has published various articles on these topics, in journals such as Regulation and Governance, Journal of Common Market Studies, and Journal of European Public Policy.