Ana Carolina Campera de Rezende Soares defends her PhD thesis at the Department of Political Science

Candidate

Ana Carolina Campera de Rezende Soares

Title

"A new instrument in the European Union’s toolbox? The role of European Administrative Networks in the implementation and enforcement of European policy".

The thesis

The thesis can be loaned from the Royal Danish Library.

Time and venue

Monday 24 June 2024 from 14:00-17:00 at Centre for Health and Society, Øster Farimagsgade 5, DK-1353 Copenhagen K., room 1.1.18. Kindly note that the defence will start precisely at 14:00.

Assessment committee

• Associate professor Wiebke Marie Junk (Chair), University of Copenhagen
• Professor Kutsal Yesilkagit, Leiden University
• Associate professor Francesca Pia Vantaggiato, King’s College London

Abstract

While the European Union is recognized for setting forward ambitious policy objectives and goals, it faces significant challenges in their implementation and enforcement at the national level. To address these issues, the EU has explored alternative institutional arrangements in addition to the traditional enforcement methods at its disposal. In this context, European Administrative Networks (EANs) emerge as promising governance tools. By pooling resources such as knowledge and expertise, and promoting the exchange of information and best practices, these networks contribute to fostering mutual learning, trust-building processes, and the development of common understandings among diverse national authorities. Yet, despite their growing presence across multiple policy areas, many questions remain unanswered: What do they do? How do they work? To what extent are they successful in achieving their goals? These questions are at the heart of this dissertation. Drawing insights from theoretical approaches such as policy learning and diffusion, social network theory, accountability, and broader EU governance literature, each of the four papers included in this dissertation sheds light on different dimensions of EANs. By applying social network analysis to original survey data, in combination with document analysis and interviews, the dissertation provides unique empirical findings on the interactions, functioning and impact of the Network of Heads of the European Environmental Protection Agencies (EPA Network) and the Senior Labour Inspectors Committee (SLIC). It also contributes significantly to broader debates on the role of new institutional arrangements in furthering European integration, the crafting of a European Administrative Space and the importance of expert knowledge in EU policy implementation.