Devolution and European Policy Making in the UK
Researchers: Martin Burch, Simon Bulmer, Caitriona Carter, Ricardo Gomez, Patricia Hogwood and Andrew Scott
In general there is a great deal of continuity pre and post devolution in ways of doing things re Europe. This has allowed for the full involvement of the devolved administrations (Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland). Thus the transition to and through the early stages of devolution has so far been a smooth one. However, changes in the structure of policy making are significant in that they open up new opportunities for the devolved administrations in particular. In exploiting these opportunities, Northern Ireland and the English regions are less far down the line than Scotland and Wales.
A number of themes have emerged.
- Devolution has made the process of UK European policy making more complex at the same time as increasing the pressures on the timetable for decision making.
- In some EU related policy areas (environment, agriculture and rural policy) a clear territorial take is being registered as a result of devolution.
- Compared to regions in most other large EU member states, the devolved administrations enjoy a privileged position in relation to their national government's European policy making process. In essence, they are treated as partners along with UK government. They are not, however, equal partners. They lack the resources, degree of access and authority that central government enjoys in European matters.
- In essence UK central government's approach to devolution and the EU has been to try to preserve, as far as possible, the process of policy making that existed prior to devolution. This relies on established UK civil service principles of information sharing and forewarning of initiatives. It is a system based on mutual trust and reciprocity. A moot issue is whether these traditional values can be sustained in a more decentralised and territorial policy process.
Key initial publication:
S. Bulmer, M. Burch, C. Carter, P. Hogwood and A. Scott , European Policy-Making under Devolution: Transforming Britain into Multi-Level Governance , London: Palgrave, 2002.
For other publications see project web-site.
