European Union

Abstract

The third case study investigates the case of the European Union. It finds that the EU’s constituent units enjoy an unusually influential role in its council model of subcentral representation. Member states shape EU trade policy at both stages of formal decision-making. In-between these formal veto points, collaborative relations between supranational and national executives are supported by a dense and formalized network of committees as well as a clear-cut division of procedural authorities. Turning to the two theorized intervening factors, the chapter finds that the nexus between European integration and international liberalization has been particularly close in procurement, reinforcing member states’ openness. Politicization of procurement liberalization, in turn, has remained low despite recent years’ contestation against CETA and TTIP. Ultimately, the EU case corroborates the initial expectation that shared rule systems are institutionally and procedurally well-equipped to adapt flexibly to the demands of multilevel trade governance and organize openness more effectively than self-rule models. EU member states have developed strategies to avoid the joint-decision trap’s propensity to decision-making blockades and lowest common denominator outcomes. Among these means rank a clear-cut division of procedural competences with the Commission, a densely institutionalized system of IGR largely secluded from domestic public and party political pressures, and the adoption of legislative proposals by qualified majority. This general institutional and procedural set-up has allowed the Union to act as a ‘market-making polity’ both internally, forging an integrated procurement market, as well as externally, pursuing an offensive agenda in the WTO and in preferential trade agreements.