Book contents
- Front matter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: flexible EU governance in domestic practice
- 2 Theorising the domestic impact of EU law: the state of the art and beyond
- 3 EU social policy over time: the role of Directives
- 4 The Employment Contract Information Directive: a small but useful social complement to the internal market
- 5 The Pregnant Workers Directive: European social policy between protection and employability
- 6 The Working Time Directive: European standards taken hostage by domestic politics
- 7 The Young Workers Directive: a safety net with holes
- 8 The Parental Leave Directive: compulsory policy innovation and voluntary over-implementation
- 9 The Part-time Work Directive: a facilitator of national reforms
- 10 Voluntary reforms triggered by the Directives
- 11 The EU Commission and (non-)compliance in the member states
- 12 Beyond policy change: convergence of national public–private relations?
- 13 Implementation across countries and Directives
- 14 Why do member states fail to comply? Testing the hypotheses suggested in the literature
- 15 Three worlds of compliance: a typology
- 16 Conclusions: myth and reality of social Europe
- References
- Index
11 - The EU Commission and (non-)compliance in the member states
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Front matter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: flexible EU governance in domestic practice
- 2 Theorising the domestic impact of EU law: the state of the art and beyond
- 3 EU social policy over time: the role of Directives
- 4 The Employment Contract Information Directive: a small but useful social complement to the internal market
- 5 The Pregnant Workers Directive: European social policy between protection and employability
- 6 The Working Time Directive: European standards taken hostage by domestic politics
- 7 The Young Workers Directive: a safety net with holes
- 8 The Parental Leave Directive: compulsory policy innovation and voluntary over-implementation
- 9 The Part-time Work Directive: a facilitator of national reforms
- 10 Voluntary reforms triggered by the Directives
- 11 The EU Commission and (non-)compliance in the member states
- 12 Beyond policy change: convergence of national public–private relations?
- 13 Implementation across countries and Directives
- 14 Why do member states fail to comply? Testing the hypotheses suggested in the literature
- 15 Three worlds of compliance: a typology
- 16 Conclusions: myth and reality of social Europe
- References
- Index
Summary
It is obvious and has been argued throughout the book that the effect of EU social policy Directives depends on timely and correct implementation in the member states. This chapter will briefly outline which instruments the EU Commission can use to make non-compliant member states fulfil their European duties. The aimis to assess the phenomenon empirically and to confront the occurrence of relevant failures with the Commission's enforcement policy.
State of the art
Within the field of research on the EU, a number of authors have dealt with the question of how well member states follow their commitment to implement EU law. Generally speaking, these studies can be divided along two lines, i.e. the approach taken and the data used. Thus most of the literature could easily be sorted into a four-box matrix, where the x-axis distinguishes between quantitative and qualitative studies, and the y-axis differentiates between cases where the initiative lies with an individual complainant or with the European Commission.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Complying with EuropeEU Harmonisation and Soft Law in the Member States, pp. 201 - 228Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005