Leaking, leak prevention, and decoupling in public administrations: the case of the European Commission
In: West European politics, Band 41, Heft 4, S. 1049-1071
ISSN: 0140-2382
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In: West European politics, Band 41, Heft 4, S. 1049-1071
ISSN: 0140-2382
World Affairs Online
Information flows in EU policy-making are heavily dependent on personal networks, both within the Brussels sphere but also reaching outside the narrow limits of the Belgian capital. These networks develop for example in the course of formal and informal meetings or at the sidelines of such meetings. A plethora of committees at European, transnational and regional level provides the basis for the establishment of pan-European networks. By studying affiliation to those committees, basic network structures can be uncovered. These affiliation network structures can then be used to predict EU information flows, assuming that certain positions within the network are advantageous for tapping into streams of information while others are too remote and peripheral to provide access to information early enough. This study has tested those assumptions for the case of the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy for the time after 2012. Through the analysis of an affiliation network based on participation in 10 different fisheries policy committees over two years (2009 and 2010), network data for an EU-wide network of about 1300 fisheries interest group representatives and more than 200 events was collected. The structure of this network showed a number of interesting patterns, such as – not surprisingly – a rather central role of Brussels-based committees but also close relations of very specific interests to the Brussels-cluster and stronger relations between geographically closer maritime regions. The analysis of information flows then focused on access to draft EU Commission documents containing the upcoming proposal for a new basic regulation of the Common Fisheries Policy. It was first documented that it would have been impossible to officially obtain this document and that personal networks were thus the most likely sources for fisheries policy actors to obtain access to these "leaks" in early 2011. A survey of a sample of 65 actors from the initial network supported these findings: Only a very small group had accessed the draft directly from the Commission. Most respondents who obtained access to the draft had received it from other actors, highlighting the networked flow of informal information in EU politics. Furthermore, the testing of the hypotheses connecting network positions and the level of informedness indicated that presence in or connections to the Brussels sphere had both advantages for overall access to the draft document and with regard to timing. Methodologically, challenges of both the network analysis and the analysis of information flows but also their relevance for the study of EU politics have been documented. In summary, this study has laid the foundation for a different way to study EU policy-making by connecting topical and methodological elements – such as affiliation network analysis and EU committee governance – which so far have not been considered together, thereby contributing in various ways to political science and EU studies.
In: Integration: Vierteljahreszeitschrift des Instituts für Europäische Politik in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Arbeitskreis Europäische Integration, Band 35, Heft 2, S. 149-153
ISSN: 0720-5120
In: Vereinte Nationen: Zeitschrift für die Vereinten Nationen und ihre Sonderorganisationen, Band 67, Heft 6, S. 262-266
ISSN: 0042-384X
World Affairs Online
In: Transformations in Governance
World Affairs Online
In: Vereinte Nationen: Zeitschrift für die Vereinten Nationen und ihre Sonderorganisationen, Band 70, Heft 6, S. 260-265
ISSN: 0042-384X
World Affairs Online
In: Vereinte Nationen: Zeitschrift für die Vereinten Nationen und ihre Sonderorganisationen, Band 68, Heft 5, S. 219-224
ISSN: 0042-384X
World Affairs Online