Defying the Commission: Creative compliance and respect for the rule of law in the EU

TitleDefying the Commission: Creative compliance and respect for the rule of law in the EU
Publication TypeJournal Article
AuthorsBatory, A.
Journal titlePublic Administration
Year2016
Pages685–699
Volume94
Issue3
Abstract

This article investigates how and to what extent member states comply with EU obligations in terms of process and outcome. The aim is to demonstrate how norm-conform behaviour unfolds, or fails to unfold, in an interaction between member state and the European Commission. The empirical focus is on recent rule of law crises in France, Hungary and Romania. The argument is that member states engage in symbolic and/or creative compliance, designed to create the appearance of norm-conform behavior without giving up their original objectives. The cases illustrate that creative and symbolic compliance strategies may be successfully employed by member states because they enable the Commission to disengage from conflicts it judges too costly and yet maintain credibility, and are conditioned by the visibility of failure to change facts on the ground. The implication is that, at times, not only is compliance symbolic, but to some extent also enforcement.

Publisher linkhttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/padm.12254/epdf
Unit: 
School of Public Policy (SPP)
Center for Policy Studies (CPS)
File attachment: