Research Papers

This paper questions whether recent integration trends, away from centralized harmonisation and towards softer, networked, forms of co-ordination and disciplining between member states, can be fully explained using orthodox (intergovernmental) accounts, but might be better attributed to the characteristics of the very expert networks that do the coordinating, in which case they are likely to ramp up certain characteristics in EU governance that we associate with them: experimentation, peer-review and consensus building; the collegiate sharing of best practice; organisation around a common epistemic perspective, not national affiliation; and a preference for cooperative, technocratic and transnational settings over parochial politics. This suggests a self-reinforcing, path-dependent trend. The paper tests this innovative endogenous account of the networked transformation of the EU using a case study of the recent negotiations over reform to the governance of telecoms in the EU, drawing on face-to-face interviews with the major players, conducted in late-2011 and early-2012. The results of 40 research interviews conducted so far strongly support our hypothesis, but a paper delivered in September could draw on the complete empirical investigation and will single out other sectors in which we might find the same dynamics at play.