Patterns of Coordination in the European Commission: An Analysis of Interservice Consultations around Climate Change Adaptation Policy (2007-2018)

Jeroen Candel; Sebastiaan Princen; Robbert Biesbroek

doi:10.1080/13501763.2021.1983008

Patterns of Coordination in the European Commission: An Analysis of Interservice Consultations around Climate Change Adaptation Policy (2007-2018)

Jeroen Candel^*
, Sebastiaan Princen
, Robbert Biesbroek

^*Corresponding author for this work

Wageningen University & Research

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Organising effective policy coordination has become a key principle of EU
policymaking in recent decades. Within the European Commission,
interservice consultations (ISCs) play an important role to coordinate
between the different directorate-generals. In spite of this importance, ISCs
have so far not been analysed in a systematic way. This paper addresses this
gap by systematically analysing the numbers, types and content of
comments made in ISCs around climate change adaptation. Our analysis
shows that ISCs were primarily used to provide substantive comments,
related to problem analyses, objectives or instruments, as well as to
strengthen or weaken connections with policy efforts in adjacent domains.
Institutional comments, related to mandates or resources, proved rare.
Moreover, we find that the types of comments given in ISCs are mediated by
institutional factors that shape the temporal dynamics of policy processes.
Rather than reflecting the ideal types of ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ coordination,
the overall pattern of policy coordination in the ISCs typifies an in-between
form of ‘incremental policy coordination.’

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	104-127
Number of pages	24
Journal	Journal of European Public Policy
Volume	30
Issue number	1
Early online date	2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2021.1983008
Publication status	Published - 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Previous versions of the paper were presented at the ECPR General Conference, 24–28 August 2020, and the International Conference on Public Policy, 6–8 July 2021. We acknowledge helpful feedback from Miriam Hartlapp, Philipp Trein and three anonymous reviewers on previous drafts. Dr. Biesbroek’s contribution was financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO-VENI grant no: 451-117-006 4140).

Funding Information:
Previous versions of the paper were presented at the ECPR General Conference, 24–28 August 2020, and the International Conference on Public Policy, 6–8 July 2021. We acknowledge helpful feedback from Miriam Hartlapp, Philipp Trein and three anonymous reviewers on previous drafts. Dr. Biesbroek’s contribution was financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO-VENI grant no: 451-117-006 4140).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 13 Climate Action

Keywords

Coordination
European Commission
climate change adaptation
interservice consultations
policy cycles
policy formulation

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10.1080/13501763.2021.1983008Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Patterns of coordination in the European Commission an analysis of interservice consultations around climate change adaptation policy 2007 2018Final published version, 2.36 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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title = "Patterns of Coordination in the European Commission: An Analysis of Interservice Consultations around Climate Change Adaptation Policy (2007-2018)",

abstract = "Organising effective policy coordination has become a key principle of EU policymaking in recent decades. Within the European Commission, interservice consultations (ISCs) play an important role to coordinate between the different directorate-generals. In spite of this importance, ISCs have so far not been analysed in a systematic way. This paper addresses this gap by systematically analysing the numbers, types and content of comments made in ISCs around climate change adaptation. Our analysis shows that ISCs were primarily used to provide substantive comments, related to problem analyses, objectives or instruments, as well as to strengthen or weaken connections with policy efforts in adjacent domains. Institutional comments, related to mandates or resources, proved rare. Moreover, we find that the types of comments given in ISCs are mediated by institutional factors that shape the temporal dynamics of policy processes. Rather than reflecting the ideal types of {\textquoteleft}negative{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}positive{\textquoteright} coordination, the overall pattern of policy coordination in the ISCs typifies an in-between form of {\textquoteleft}incremental policy coordination.{\textquoteright}",

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N2 - Organising effective policy coordination has become a key principle of EU policymaking in recent decades. Within the European Commission, interservice consultations (ISCs) play an important role to coordinate between the different directorate-generals. In spite of this importance, ISCs have so far not been analysed in a systematic way. This paper addresses this gap by systematically analysing the numbers, types and content of comments made in ISCs around climate change adaptation. Our analysis shows that ISCs were primarily used to provide substantive comments, related to problem analyses, objectives or instruments, as well as to strengthen or weaken connections with policy efforts in adjacent domains. Institutional comments, related to mandates or resources, proved rare. Moreover, we find that the types of comments given in ISCs are mediated by institutional factors that shape the temporal dynamics of policy processes. Rather than reflecting the ideal types of ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ coordination, the overall pattern of policy coordination in the ISCs typifies an in-between form of ‘incremental policy coordination.’

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Patterns of Coordination in the European Commission: An Analysis of Interservice Consultations around Climate Change Adaptation Policy (2007-2018)

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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