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- Casula Vifell, Åsa, 1976-
(författare)
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Speaking with forked tongues : Swedish public administration and the European employment strategy
- 2009
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Ingår i: European Integration Online Papers. - : Elsevier BV. - 1027-5193. ; 13:july 7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this paper is to understand how decision making processes within the EU comes to affect the structures for national policy making within the employment field. The paper addresses the question of how the process of writing new employment guidelines for the EES – European employment strategy, has affected the work of the Swedish public administration. Through applying a neo-institutionalist perspective, it contributes to the understanding of effects that the increased embededness of states, often characterized as Europeanization, invoke on national administrations. I argue that the way the process has been managed can be analyzed from an organizational perspective where conflicting demands on the Swedish state has led to a certain organization of the work activities. On the one hand, Swedish representatives have to act according to the norms of the European cooperation in order to be seen as a legitimate actor. On the other hand, EU and European influence on Swedish employment policy is not a legitimate concept at national level. In order to satisfy these two seemingly incompatible demands the organizing principle of decoupling is being used to create space for maneuvering for the administration. However, through participation at EU-level organizational identities are partly transformed which in time leads to a situation where changed practices are not met by changes in formal structures. As a consequence the Swedish representatives are in a manner ‘speaking with forked tongue’ and obscuring the new way in which policy making is conducted thus introducing democratic shortcomings in terms of transparency and accountability.
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| 3. |
- Elgström, Ole
(författare)
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Images of the EU in EPA negotiations: Angel, demon - or just human?
- 2008
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Ingår i: European Integration Online Papers. - 1027-5193. ; 12:5, s. 1-12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A striking feature of the discourses surrounding the negotiations of Economic Partnership Agreements between the EU and developing states is the starkly contrasting pictures given of the role and nature of the EU. The Union is either portrayed as an angel, an actor with altruistic objectives, concerned primarily with the economic and social development of the ACP countries, or as a demon, an actor driven by self-interest with an hidden agenda and using confrontational tactics. The first image is mainly held by Commission officials, the second by NGO representatives. In this article, I establish the existence of the two contrasting images, try to explain theoretically the nature of the debate by reference to cognitive theory, and discuss the potential consequences of constructing and utilizing black-and-white images. I argue that the EU risked being caught in rhetorical traps by describing itself in overly altruistic terms, thereby giving its counterparts argumentative advantages. NGOs, on the other hand, lost some of their possibilities of influencing EU policy by taking a totally confrontational stance.
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