What Does the European Union Do?

• Published in: Public choice Vol. 123; no. 3/4; pp. 275 - 319
• Main Authors: Alesina, Alberto, Angeloni, Ignazio, Schuknecht, Ludger
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer 01.06.2005; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: 1200; 9130; 9175; 926110; 928120; Central banks; Citizenship; Commercial treaties; Common markets; Corporate communications; Economic Policy; Economies of scale; Educational research; Environmental education; Europe; European Union; Experimental/theoretical; Federalism; International relations; International trade; Manycountries; Monetary policy; Policy Making; Public choice; Public opinion surveys; Public policy; Regression analysis; Social policy; Studies; Tax policy; Treaties; Western Europe; Europe
• ISSN: 0048-5829; 1573-7101
• DOI: 10.1007/s11127-005-7164-3

The goal of this paper is to evaluate the attribution of policy prerogatives to European Union level institutions and compare them to the implications of normative policy models and to the preferences of European citizens. For this purpose we construct a set of indicators to measure the policy-making intensity of the European Union (European Council, Parliament, Commission, Court of Justice, etc.). We confirm that the extent and the intensity of policymaking by the EU have increased sharply over the last 30 years, but at different speeds, and in different degrees, across policy domains. In recent years the areas that have expanded most are quite remote from the EEC's original mission of establishing a free market zone with common external trade policy. On the contrary some policy domains that would normally be attributed to the highest level of government remain at national level. We argue that the resulting allocation of prerogatives between the EU and member countries is partly inconsistent with normative criteria concerning the assignment of policies at different government levels, as laid out in the theoretical literature.